This week, we were asked to conduct some research on local privacy legislation. The Province of Alberta has what it calls the Personal Information Protection Act Regulation, which is intended to provide governance on the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, with the intent of safeguarding personal information of individuals.

The regulation is composed of eight parts. Part 1 is simply a definition of the term “managing”. Part 2 is comprised of a set of definitions that define what constitutes publicly available information. Part 3 pertains to the requirement for an organization to designate an office that manages requests for access to records. It also governs how the organization may respond to such requests. Part 4 provides governance on the collection, use and disclosure by an archival institution. Part 5 relates to fees related to accessing the records. Part 6 pertains to actions on the loss, unauthorized access and disclosure of personal information and how individuals are notified. Part 7 discusses the establishment of a regulatory organization. Part 8 indicates that it comes into force 1 Jan 2004, and expires on June 30, 2019.

While it is comforting to know that the Government of Alberta has regulations in place to protect the privacy of its citizens, the document is cumbersome and fragmented. To be honest, I had to read through the regulation a few times before I was able to comprehend the details. Even though it is a fairly short document, it was bit of a difficult read as it appeared very fragmented. The website for the regulation also provides a comparison between the Alberta, BC and the federal privacy laws, which I found helpful in deciphering the lingo.

Reference: Alberta’s PIPA Regulation: http://servicealberta.ca/pipa/legislation/pipa-regulation.cfm