Ottawa to reinstate privacy provision removed from streaming law

The Canadian government recently announced plans to restore a privacy provision to the Online Streaming Act, which was mistakenly deleted over two years ago. The federal budget unveiled this week outlines a legislative amendment that will bring back the right to privacy for individuals and remove a redundant provision related to official languages.

Originally, the Online Streaming Act was updated in 2023 to include online streaming platforms like Netflix under Canada’s Broadcasting Act. The Senate later added an amendment to ensure that the act was interpreted and applied in a way that respected individuals’ privacy rights. This change was proposed by Sen. Julie Miville-Dechêne following a recommendation from the federal privacy commissioner.

In a separate move, the government passed an official languages bill, which inadvertently led to the removal of the privacy provision instead of a similar one on official language minority communities. This left the streaming legislation with two provisions related to linguistic communities and none addressing privacy concerns. After this oversight was brought to light by University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist in a blog post, the Heritage department acknowledged the mistake and pledged to rectify it.

The restoration of this privacy provision is a positive step towards safeguarding the privacy rights of individuals within the digital streaming landscape. Attention to detail and oversight in legislative amendments will help ensure that the laws governing online streaming remain relevant and protective of Canadians’ data and privacy.