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ARTICLE · 21 OCTOBER 2019

Office Of The Privacy Commissioner Of Canada Ends Consultation On Transfers For Processing

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OPC's proposed interpretation was met with concern from industry and from privacy professionals.

CanadaPrivacy
Christopher Ferguson
Christopher Ferguson
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On September 23, 2019, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced that it was ending its Consultation on transfers for processing (Consultation) and that it will maintain the status quo set out in its 2009 Guidelines for processing personal data across borders (Guidelines) until the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) is reformed. In doing so, the OPC made clear that it sees the current act's protections as "clearly insufficient" and that it will make recommendations "to strengthen the protections in a future law".

In establishing the Consultation, the OPC had proposed a significant departure from its existing interpretation of how PIPEDA applies to transfers of personal information to third parties for processing (see our prior bulletins on both Consultation documents: Privacy Commissioner of Canada Reverses Position on Transfers of Personal Information for Processing, Initiates Consultation on Cross-border

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