Toronto, August 22, 2019: Recently ACA submitted our comments to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on cross border data flows.
The OPC used its ruling on the Equifax breech as a departure point for consultations with respect to the need to gather consent for cross border data transfers.
The industry is unanimous that this new interpretation of PIPEDA is a dramatic over reach by the OPC.

The key points of our submission are:

  • interpretation of the word “transfer” as a “disclosure” which has implications downstream on marketer’s data relationships
  • questioning how marketers would provide notice of “the associated risks” of a transborder data flow
  • the risk of consent requirements becoming so long that consent becomes meaningless

Read the letter

Any questions or comments can be directed to Chris Williams at