in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, N ov em be r 26 ,2 02 0 | 36 Livingston Furs Celebrates the Heritage of Fur Craftsmanship, In our new Pop Up Store 481 JOHN ST, Back in Burlington Downtown www.livingstonfurs.com 905-528-1177 All StorAge & Fur ServiceS Are AvAilAble All YeAr At our HAmilton FAcilitieS REUSE • RECYCLE RE_IMAGINE YOUR FURS! Come and View our Special displays and beautifully decorated windows that were created in collaboration with Sheridan's Visual Merchandising Arts Program.Touch Our latest and practical long lasting styles in furs, reversibles, sherlings & soft accessories. Celebrating Decades of Our Fur Craftsmanship, Style & Excellent Service Our NEw COllECtiON OF thE FiNESt • Furs • shearlings • reversibles • Outerwear • shawls • vests • hats • glOves and mOre; PluS our vintAge collection TK The federal Liberals will propose penalties Tuesday for companies that abuse Canadians' per- sonal data in what is being billed as a "significant" re- form to the country's priva- cy laws, the Star has learned. A federal source told the Star that the new legisla- tion, expected as early as this week, will attempt to bring the country's aging privacy regime up to inter- national standards. Within the government, the legislation is viewed as the implementation of the Liberals' long-promised "digital charter" that Prime Minister Justin Tru- deau announced in 2018, which promised Canadi- ans greater control over and transparency around how private companies use the personal information they collect. "It's a leap forward for the privacy protections that Canadians have. It's really about more control over what companies can do with your data, and greater transparency about what they've done with your data once they have it," said the source, who agreed to discuss the government's plan on the condition they not be named. Canada's privacy re- gime has not been signifi- cantly updated since the advent of smartphones. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is seen by advocates as the current gold standard for a modern privacy regime. The GDPR legislation was enacted in 2018 and is heavily focused on requiring companies obtain consent before col- lecting anyone's personal information. The Liberals' planned update to the Personal In- formation Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) was made known in 2019 with the so- called digital charter. That framework prioritized Ca- nadians having access and control over their personal information and data, fair competition in a digital space dominated by giant American companies, and "strong enforcement" against companies that vi- olate privacy laws. Canadian regulators currently have few tools to enforce privacy laws, and few penalties to impose for violations -- such as col- lecting data without con- sent, a situation the gov- ernment plans to remedy with the creation of a data protection tribunal. Kirsten Thompson, a lawyer with Dentons spe- cializing in privacy issues, said technology has out- paced Canada's privacy re- gime, so an update is need- ed. But Thompson said Canada's approach needs to find a balance between the laissez-faire approach of the United States and Europe's more stringent privacy regulations. "I'm not sure we want to go as far as (the European Union), which puts the em- phasis on human rights protection, and I suspect that neither do we want to go in the direction that the U.S. takes, which is laissez- faire capitalism," said Thompson, who repre- sents companies navigat- ing Canada's privacy laws. "Canada is somewhere in the middle of that," she said. "Getting that balance right is going to be critical." It's not clear how the new data protection tribu- nal will fit in with the Of- fice of the Privacy Commis- sioner, which has taken an aggressive stance on priva- cy issues surrounding big tech and social media plat- forms. But Thompson said it would be good to separate the advocacy role -- which Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien has em- bodied during his tenure -- from a neutral enforce- ment role. "What is clear is that Ca- nadians want more trans- parency in how their data is being collected and how it is being used," said a gov- ernment report on digital charter consultations. "Current consent-based models with complex and lengthy privacy policies are inadequate and do not help build trust." PRIVACY LAW WILL HAVE PENALTIES FOR THOSE THAT ABUSE CANADIANS' DATA ALEX BOUTILIER aboutilier@thestar.ca The federal government will introduce penalties for companies that abuse Canadians' personal data in what is being billed as a 'significant' reform to the country's privacy laws. Pexels photo NEWS