Data protection provisions of Pacific trade deal raise questions
OTTAWA — The newly forged Pacific Rim trade deal has a leading privacy advocate wondering whether the agreement could leave sensitive personal data exposed to prying eyes.
Vincent Gogolek of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association says his group wants to know more about how and when provisions on data storage might apply.
“We have questions, and until those questions are answered we have concerns,” he said in an interview.
Public-sector privacy laws in British Columbia and Nova Scotia require domestic data storage — a reflection of uneasiness about foreign law-enforcement and security agencies getting their hands on sensitive personal records.