Bill 64, which purports to modernise Québec’s privacy legislation, was recently passed. This sweeping reform of the province’s framework for processing personal information hinges on three main axes:
- increased obligations for enterprises that collect or otherwise process personal information,
- the creation of new rights for persons whose information is collected, and
- the imposition of far more stringent sanctions for failing to comply with the law.
The new requirements enterprises will now have to comply with include the obligation to give notification of any confidentiality incident presenting a risk of serious injury and to conduct an assessment of privacy-related factors in certain circumstances. People will also gain a new right – that of the portability of their data, allowing them to demand that any personal information concerning them held by an enterprise be released to them. Add to this those changes that lawmakers have made to various legal concepts already codified, such as the requirements for obtaining consent and releasing data to third parties.
To find out more about the many changes introduced by Bill 64, when they will come into force and their real-world impact, we encourage you to read our article on the subject.