Canada is introducing Bill C-36, a major legislative overhaul designed to modernize private-sector privacy laws and address the evolving risks posed by artificial intelligence and automated decision-making systems.

Key Points

• Bill C-36 marks Canada’s first significant update to private-sector privacy legislation in over 25 years.
• The proposed law expands the definition of personal information to include data inferred by AI algorithms.
• New protections classify information belonging to individuals under 18 as inherently sensitive, granting minors stronger deletion rights.
• The legislation mandates greater transparency for organizations using automated systems to make significant decisions about individuals.
• The bill maintains existing exemptions for journalistic, artistic, and literary work to ensure public interest investigations remain protected.

Why it Matters

This legislation attempts to shift the focus of privacy law from simple data collection to the more complex risks of AI-driven profiling and behavioral prediction. By balancing individual agency with the need for public-interest research, the bill sets a critical precedent for how governments can regulate technology that increasingly influences daily life.