PIPEDA

In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) covers the disclosure of personal information in the private sector. The privacy law applies to any Canadian private-sector organization that collects sensitive data in the course of commercial activity. A data protection tool is necessary in order to achieve comprehensive PIPEDA compliance.

PIPEDA grants citizens of Canada the following data privacy rights:

• To know what their sensitive data will be used for

• To expect organizations to not use their sensitive data for any other purpose other than which was granted consent for

• The right to update personal data and for that data to be kept up-to-date

• The right to access their information

• The right to report organizations that do not follow the rule of law

Data masking allows Canadian businesses to stay on the right side of PIPEDA compliance, whilst giving their customers the peace of mind that their data is protected at all times.

Data masking, also known as de-identification, works by masking sensitive data elements, and employs sophisticated algorithms to replace the indicated elements with similar, seemingly authentic elements. Once masked, the data will look authentic, but will have been effectively de-identified.

It is worth noting that many Canadian provinces have their own privacy laws outside of PIPEDA, and it is recommended to check each province your business engages with to clarify the necessary data protection requirements you need to comply with.

Learn more about Privacy Laws like PIPEDA here.