Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (abbreviated PIPEDA or PIPED Act) is a Canadian law relating to data privacy. It governs how private sector organizations collect, use and disclose personal information in the course of commercial business. In addition, the Act contains various provisions to facilitate the use of electronic documents. PIPEDA became law on 13 April 2000 to promote consumer trust in electronic commerce. The act was also intended to reassure the European Union that the Canadian privacy law was adequate to protect the personal information of European citizens. In accordance with section 29 of PIPEDA, Part I of the Act ("Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector") must be reviewed by Parliament every five years. The first Parliamentary review occurred in 2007.

PIPEDA incorporates and makes mandatory provisions of the Canadian Standards Association's Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, developed in 1995. However, there are a number of exceptions to the Code where information can be collected, used and disclosed without the consent of the individual. Examples include reasons of national security, international affairs, and emergencies. Under the act, personal information can also be disclosed without knowledge or consent to investigations related to law enforcement, whether federal, provincial or foreign. There are also exceptions to the general rule that an individual shall be given access to his or her personal information. Exceptions may include information that would likely reveal personal information about a third party, information that cannot be disclosed for certain legal, security, or commercial proprietary reasons, and information that is subject to solicitor-client privilege.

Read more about Personal Information Protection And Electronic Documents Act:  Overview, Implementation, Remedies

Famous quotes containing the words personal, information, protection, electronic, documents and/or act:

    The terrible thing is that one cannot be a Communist and not let oneself in for the shameful act of recantation. One cannot be a Communist and preserve an iota of one’s personal integrity.
    Milovan Djilas (b. 1911)

    If you have any information or evidence regarding the O.J. Simpson case, press 2 now. If you are an expert in fields relating to the O.J. Simpson case and would like to offer your services, press 3 now. If you would like the address where you can send a letter of support to O.J. Simpson, press 1 now. If you are seeking legal representation from the law offices of Robert L. Shapiro, press 4 now.
    Advertisement. Aired August 8, 1994 by Tom Snyder on TV station CNBC. Chicago Sun Times, p. 11 (July 24, 1994)

    Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

    Sometimes, because of its immediacy, television produces a kind of electronic parable. Berlin, for instance, on the day the Wall was opened. Rostropovich was playing his cello by the Wall that no longer cast a shadow, and a million East Berliners were thronging to the West to shop with an allowance given them by West German banks! At that moment the whole world saw how materialism had lost its awesome historic power and become a shopping list.
    John Berger (b. 1926)

    The American Constitution, one of the few modern political documents drawn up by men who were forced by the sternest circumstances to think out what they really had to face instead of chopping logic in a university classroom.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone.
    Deborah Tannen (20th century)