Support Centre

British Columbia

Summary

Law: Personal Information Protection Act, SBC 2003 c 63 ('PIPA'). Inter-provincial private organisations are regulated at the federal level by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act 2000 ('PIPEDA').

Regulator: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia ('OIPC')

Summary: British Columbia's PIPA is a privacy law that regulates private organisations which collect, use, and disclose personal information. The OIPC is also very active in supplementing the Province's statutory framework with guidance through OIPC Commissioner findings and information documents at both the provincial and federal levels. In addition, and importantly to note as a contrast to PIPEDA, PIPA applies irrespective of whether an activity is commercial in nature. Moreover, as PIPA has been deemed substantially similar to PIPEDA, it applies instead of PIPEDA with respect to data processing within British Columbia.

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