Links

• The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) (http://www.privcom.gc.ca/index_e.asp), is responsible for investigating complaints and conducting reviews under both pieces of privacy legislation.
  
  
• The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ( http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-8.6/index.html) applies to personal information held by some private sector businesses and organizations.
  
  
• The TBS Policy on Privacy and Data Protection ( http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/gospubs/TBM_128/siglist_e.asp) is based on the Privacy Act (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-21/index.html) and the principles of appropriate governance, access to personal information by the individual concerned and the protection of their personal information. Each government institution is responsible for ensuring that their organization complies with the fair information practices embodied in sections 4 through 8 of the Privacy Act, which relate to the appropriate collection, use, disclosure, retention and protection of personal information about individuals. The Policy is an integral tool that is used to provide direction and guidance to federal institutions concerning the appropriate interpretation of the provisions of the Act. The Policy also contains specific requirements with respect to data matching of personal information and with regard to the use of the Social Insurance Number by all federal institutions subject to the Privacy Act.
  
  
• Personal information about any individual that is held by federal institutions subject to the legislation can be requested by the individual under the Privacy Act. The Treasury Board Secretariat's Info Source publications list the various types of personal information held by federal institutions about federal government employees and the general public ( http://infosource.gc.ca/index_e.asp).