Volume I

Issue : 11: November 27, 2003

• European Court Rules that Sounds Can be Trade-Marks
• Privacy Commissioner Finds After-the-fact Consent Ineffective
• UN Releases E-Commerce and Development Report 2003
• Internet E-Commerce Complaints Make Top Ten List in Consumer Complaints Survey
• Coca-Cola Ltd. Wins Right to "cocacola.ca" Via CIRA Domain Name Dispute Process
• FTC Comments on Consumer-Directed Promotion of Prescription Drugs
• Extraction of Public Domain Data from a Database Does Not Breach Copyright
• Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Landmark Case (Tariff 22)
• Alberta Enacts Privacy Legislation

Home > Volume I > Issue 11: November 27, 2003 > Alberta Enacts Privacy Legislation

Alberta Enacts Privacy Legislation

Unlike the Province of Ontario, Alberta recently passed its version of the federal privacy legislation, Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA"). Alberta's Bill 44, Personal Information Protection Act, received royal assent on December 4, 2003 and shall be in force for January 01, 2004. Alberta now becomes one of only three provinces (Quebec and British Columbia being the other two) to enact private sector privacy legislation similar to PIPEDA. Any province without legislation that is "substantially similar" to PIPEDA will become subject to PIPEDA on January 1, 2004.

The purpose of Alberta's privacy legislation is to "govern the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by organizations in a manner that recognizes both the right of an individual to have his or her personal information protected and the need of organizations to collect, use or disclose personal information for purposes that are reasonable."

In contrast to PIPEDA, Alberta's privacy version enumerates a greater number of exceptions to the necessary compliance of its Act. For example:

• health information, as defined in the Health Information Act (HIA), to which HIA applies
• personal information about an individual if the individual has been dead for at least 20 years
• personal information about an individual that is contained in a record that has been in existence for at least 100 years
• personal information that is in the custody of an organization if the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act applies to that information
• the collection, use or disclosure of personal information if the collection, use or disclosure, as the case may be, is for artistic or literary purposes and for no other purpose
• the collection, use or disclosure of personal information if the collection, use or disclosure, as the case may be, is for personal or domestic purposes of the individual and for no other purpose.

For a copy of Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act, visit:

http://www.assembly.ab.ca/pro/bills/ba-status.asp?SelectBill=044.