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Posted By: Shaun Brown May 27, 2019Category: PIPEDA

Data Localization: An Exercise in Futility?

Last week I presented on data localization at the IAPP Canada Privacy Symposium 2019 (my slides are here).

There are a mix of laws (BC and Nova Scotia), formal policies (federal, New Brunswick and Manitoba), in addition to other, less formal policies and practices among public bodies that restrict the flows of personal information beyond the borders of Canada. Although there are a few reasons for data localization requirements around the world, Canadian restrictions arose largely because of concerns about exposure to U.S. law enforcement agencies due to the changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by the USA Patriot Act. This, of course, limits the ability of public bodies to use cloud-based and other service providers.

My view is that these restrictions are based on a few fundamental misconceptions: 1) FISA poses a meaningful threat to the privacy of Canadians (it does not); and 2) keeping data physically located in Canada eliminates this threat (it does not). For the most part, keeping the data physically located in Canada does nothing to insulate it from foreign demands for disclosure if the service provider is based in a foreign jurisdiction. However, in most cases, most of the time, personal information is still more secure if it is processed by a competent cloud-based service provider, regardless of its location.

The session generated quite a bit of discussion, although I expected more people to disagree with my position (a good portion of the room was filled with government employees and service providers who were frustrated by the restrictions). Interestingly, during another Symposium session, former Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia David Loukidelis stated that the proliferation of data localization requirements throughout Canada is a concerning policy development. This is notable because Loukidelis conducted a seminal study on the Patriot Act in 2004 which contributed to the first legal data localization requirement being passed in B.C.

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