The Federal Government has created Personal Information Banks (PIB) to collect and store data on Canadians

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Sometimes information is shared with me, and it makes me sit back and go, “Hmmmm!”

I received an email that stated in the subject line, “This email is only for CANADA.”  Okay! I was interested. I kept reading. “We have been asked to share the following information by a fellow Canadian in case you aren’t aware and want to take ACTION. Please feel free to share this with other Canadians.”

Apparently, the federal government has quietly begun the creation of Personal Information Banks (PIB) to collect and store data on Canadians.

According to the Government of Canada, Personal Information Banks (PIBs) are descriptions of personal information under the control of a government institution that is organized and retrievable by an individual’s name, or by a number, symbol or other element that identifies that individual. The personal information described in a PIB has been used, is being used, or is available for an administrative purpose. The PIB describes how personal information is: collected, used, disclosed, retained and/or disposed of in the administration of a government institution’s program, or activity.

There are three types of PIBs: central, institution-specific and standard. The following descriptions are standard PIBs. They describe information about members of the public as well as current and former federal employees contained in records: created, collected and maintained by most government institutions in support of common internal services. These include personal information relating to human resources management, travel, corporate communications and other administrative services. Standard PIBs are created by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

Now, the claim is that governments need information about their citizens in order to deliver programs and set public policies in vital areas, such as: health, transportation, public safety and national security. At the same time, individuals need to know that their personal information is being collected, used and disclosed. This is where the Privacy Act comes in. The Privacy Act sets out the privacy rights of individuals in their interactions with the federal government. It obliges government institutions to respect the privacy of individuals by controlling the: collection, use, disclosure, retention and disposal of recorded personal information.

In passing the Privacy Act and appointing a Privacy Commissioner, Parliament asserted the right to privacy. It concluded that, while the federal government needs to collect and use personal information, it must do so in a way that does not unduly interfere with people’s privacy.

The Act obliges the government to collect only the personal information it needs to carry out its functions, to keep it: accurate, complete and up-to-date, and to destroy whatever is no longer needed. If the government needs to share your personal information with other departments or organizations, it can do so only under certain conditions.

Over the years, individuals have reported various concerns ranging from perceived over-collection of personal information to disclosures of personal information that people felt were not authorized under the Privacy Act. This is another case where we were not consulted, nor informed about the creation, or existence of these databases and they are being collected without our permission, or knowledge. Categories of information include biometrics (DNA, blood type, eye/facial scan, fingerprints, etc.), personal biography, medical history, financial history, credit information, opinions or views of or about individuals, and much more.

It was discovered that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had quietly added it to their Privacy Terms so that in order to submit an application for benefits, such as the One-Time Housing Top Up they started offering in December, you must click that you agree to terms including “Being described in Personal Information Bank (under development)” in order to submit your application. It is also a term in the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) application. It quite likely will be a term for submitting your income tax return, so read those Privacy Terms when filing your taxes this year!

They lay it all out in their Departmental Plan for Health Canada 2022/23. There is no mention of hiring health care workers. It’s all data, digitization, AI, vaccines and so on. This is a big deal. Under the Privacy Act, whether you are inside, or outside Canada, you can file a request for access to your personal data. The steps are as follows:

• Determine which department or agency holds the information you want to request. All federal government institutions are listed in a public directory called Info Source, along with their mandates and responsibilities.
• Find the contact information for the organization’s Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator.
• Follow the steps for filing a request for personal information.
• Once you receive your personal information, you can ask the department to make any necessary corrections.

Nowadays, it seems like world governments are always trying to get away with something. Good thing that we have journalists as watchdogs and protectors of their communities.