Bill C-27 sees amendments to minor and personal information definitions

The clause-by-clause study of Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Act, continued at the House of Commons Industry Committee meeting on Monday. Three amendments were made to the legislation. Introduced at the end of the previous session, the Conservative party’s motion to raise the definition of minor from age 14 to 18 passed. During debate, Bloc Quebecois MP Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay raised concerns about older minors, particularly 15 to 17-year-olds, being unable to properly champion or consent to how their private data is handled and be forced to comply with the views of their parents or guardians. “That 15 to 18-year-old area still contains a lot of potentially sensitive information,” explained Mark Schaan, senior assistant deputy minister of the strategy and innovation policy sector. He assured the committee that the bill and existing legal jurisprudence still allows for minors to personally exercise their rights and recourses, if they have the ability and capacity to do so. Another motion that passed also came from the Conservatives, which brought inferred information into the bill’s definition of personal information. Inferred information relates to information derived about an individual based on other data points. “An inference can lead to adaptive revelation, such as those relating to political affinity, interest, financial class, race, etc.,” said MP Ryan Williams, arguing that its misuse can result in the same kind of harms that can stem from the misuse of collected information. Schaan noted that inferred information is already considered personal information in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which is being “ported” to Bill C-27, but that explicitly including it could provide greater certainty. Conservative MP Bernard Généreux explained that his party plans on introducing future motions related to profiling activities conducted by automated decision systems and introduced a motion to define the term, which passed. The motion defines profiling as any form of automated processing of personal information to evaluate or predict personal aspects relating to an individual. Much like the inferred information discussion, Schaan noted that the concept of profiling is already implied in the bill’s definition of automated decision system and its accompanying rules, but adding a definition could provide clarity and be useful for other upcoming amendments. “This is not a hill we're gonna die on, we will support you,” said Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull, indifferent to the motion. Conservative MP Brad Vis introduced a motion to define sensitive information, a term referenced throughout the bill. He proposed a list of sensitive categories, including health information, biometric data, political opinions, sexual orientation, and certain content stored on electronic devices. Debate arose as to whether the list is too broad and renders the bill unimplementable. Savard-Tremblay proposed a sub-amendment to improve the definition, proposing it include mention of an individual’s “reasonable expectation of privacy” depending on the context of the information’s use. Due to time constraints, he said he will present the sub-amendment in writing for debate during the next committee meeting. – Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca

Bill C-27 sees amendments to minor and personal information definitions

News | April 29, 2024

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Bill C-27 sees amendments to minor and personal information definitions

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