News release: Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada submits comments on proposed Consumer-Driven Banking Regulations

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada submits comments on proposed Consumer-Driven Banking Regulations

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) today submitted comments to Finance Canada on the federal government’s proposed Consumer-Driven Banking Regulations.

In its submission, the OPC says that it supports the aims of the consumer-driven banking regime and several elements within the proposed regulations that would help to ensure that consumers’ privacy is protected. These include allowing consumers to direct where their data is going in a safe and secure way; requiring participating organizations such as banks to report data breaches to the Bank of Canada; and the use of multi-factor authentication when responding to requests to share data.

The OPC submission also recommends areas where privacy-protective measures could be enhanced, including helping consumers better understand what information would be captured, limiting the consent exception for publicly available data, and requiring that the security safeguards of participating entities are appropriate to the sensitivity of the data.