The Privacy Act (French: Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels) is the federal information-privacy legislation of Canada that came into effect on July 1, 1983.
[1][2] Administered by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada,[1] the Act sets out rules for how institutions of the Government of Canada collect, use, disclose, retain, and dispose of personal information of individuals.
[3] Some salient provisions of the legislation are as follows: The first privacy law in Canada was enacted in 1977 in part four of the Canadian Human Rights Act by creating the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which would be responsible for investigating privacy violation complaints by members of the public and reporting to lawmakers.
An individual who has been refused access to personal information may ultimately apply to the Federal Court for a review of the matter, pursuant to section 41 of the Act.
The Court may order the head of the government institution to disclose the information to the individual (sections 48 and 49).