Canada

A number of federal statutes address the privacy of personal information in specific sectors. For example, the Bank Act, Bank Act 1991, the Insurance Companies Act and Trust and Loan Companies Act, permit regulations regarding the use of information provided by customers. Under the Telecommunications Act, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is mandated to regulate telecommunications companies so as "to protect the privacy of persons," among other policy objectives. It has done so mainly through regulations governing the confidentiality of customer records, the ability of customers to block the display of their names and numbers on the telephone sets of people and to regulate unsolicited communications by rules governing telemarketing (but not spam). Additional privacy protections are built into the Young Offenders Act and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. The Young Offenders Act regulates the information that can be disclosed about offenders under the age of 18, while the Corrections and Conditional Release Act speaks to the information that can be disclosed to victims and their families. Some provinces also have sector-specific laws to protect personal information, including health-specific privacy laws, consumer credit reporting laws, laws regulating information from credit unions, and legislation imposing restrictions on the disclosure of personal information held by private investigators and other professionals.

Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan have all passed health privacy legislation, which sets rules for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal health information. These laws apply to personal health information held by hospitals, government ministries, regulated health professionals, and other health care facilities or information custodians.