NAFTA talks set for strife over where private, personal information is stored

One of a American targets in the arriving renegotiation of a North American Free Trade Agreement appears on a collision march with remoteness laws in British Columbia and Nova Scotia.

In negotiating objectives published final week, a Office of a United States Trade Representative pronounced it wanted to “establish manners to safeguard that NAFTA countries do not levy measures that shorten cross-border information flows and do not need a use of designation of internal computing facilities.”

But provincial legislation in dual Canadian provinces does accurately that, with rules requiring personal information collected by governments, such as health records, to be stored on domestic servers to forestall it being accessed for reasons other than those for that it was collected.

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For example, under the U.S. Patriot Act brought in to quarrel terrorism in a days after Sept. 11, if a Canadian supervision had engaged a U.S. facility to store electronic records, American security or comprehension officers could entrance them.

“This is something that we have motionless democratically that we wish to do to strengthen a remoteness rights,” pronounced Vincent Gogolek, a executive executive of B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.

Following an cheer over a move by a previous Liberal supervision in B.C. to outsource a administration of supervision health-care information, “this is something that has acquired domestic accord in B.C.,” he said.

“We wish a feds to strengthen a remoteness rights.”

‘Swapping rights for tariffs’

Canadian restrictions on information storage have been a burr underneath a USTR’s saddle for years, even before a many new pull to update NAFTA for e-commerce.

“The American position is that we would cite to have a server farms in Arizona or California or wherever … and we send your information down here,” Gogolek said. The U.S. outlook is: “this gets in a proceed of us making money, and we resent it, so we wish we to change it.”

“They haven’t had any event to go after it, and this is their opportunity,” he said. But Canada “shouldn’t be swapping rights off in sell for reduce tariffs on widgets. It should be flattering candid for a sovereign supervision to only mount adult and contend ‘No, we’re not doing it.'”

President George W. Bush, centre, signs a Patriot Act in 2006. Some Canadians worry that if their personal information was stored on a server located in a U.S. it could be accessed by American authorities though their knowledge. (Charles Dharapak/Associated Press)

Previous negotiations among a 3 NAFTA partners, who were all partial of a 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership, proposed grandfathering existing remoteness legislation. Would that occur this time? It’s unclear.

The sovereign supervision hasn’t been fearful of invoking national confidence to ensure government email is stored in Canada, Gogolek said. If it’s peaceful to do that, “why shouldn’t we be safeguarding Canadians’ information generally, that they have to yield to government?”

Both provinces adopted their laws over a decade ago, out of regard about unfamiliar comprehension entertainment though notice to individuals, that isn’t unchanging with Canadian remoteness standards.

“It isn’t so most about a security, since of march we could have improved confidence on a unfamiliar server. The problem is that if a server is in a United States, afterwards American law relates to it,” said Catherine Tully, a information and remoteness commissioner for Nova Scotia.

She pronounced she does spasmodic hear from organizations unfortunate about carrying to comply. But database services and cloud providers are increasingly accessible in Canada, she said. 

“Public bodies get to entrance a lot of a personal information so they can yield us with services. In sell we design open bodies to strengthen that data,” she said.

Protectionism or security?

The Information Technology Association of Canada — which represents 330 record companies, two-thirds of that are Canadian-owned tiny and medium-sized businesses — pronounced in a new acquiescence to Canada’s NAFTA consultation routine that it wants to see some-more open constrictive for all open institutions. 

“Data residency manners don’t make a whole lot of sense. It unequivocally creates a fake clarity of security,” pronounced David Messer, ITAC’s vice-president of policy. “Most internet traffic, either it’s emails or information … goes around a world,” he said, including vital sell points in Seattle or New York.

“The proceed to residence confidence in a cloud and over a internet isn’t by information localization,” he said, though other safeguards like contractual obligations for use providers and encryption.

Vital inhabitant confidence information might need to stay local, Messer said. But too most of this contention is driven by paranoia about U.S. comprehension services, he said. “The concentration needs to be on outcomes, not on capricious things like location.”

Do local storage mandate create local jobs?

“You’re not going to get thousands of jobs operative during a server farm,” he said. Meanwhile, prohibiting cloud computing could unequivocally expostulate adult costs for taxpayers.

“If that’s a proceed to mercantile development, it’s not a good one,” he said.

‘Standing adult for a values’

John Horgan said during B.C.’s provincial choosing debate that he supports maintaining the remoteness legislation and would conflict any pierce by a Trump administration to criticise these rights.

B.C. Premier John Horgan came to Ottawa Tuesday to accommodate with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He’s off to Washington next, as trade issues dawn vast for a provincial NDP government’s new agenda. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

The premier met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa Tuesday. Trade was on their agenda, though they didn’t residence this sold emanate in their open remarks.

Trudeau and other sovereign officials say that in a lead-up to a start of NAFTA talks subsequent month, they won’t be negotiating in public: they’ll keep their detailed strategy close to their chests.

In response to a ask for comment, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland’s orator Adam Austen emailed a ubiquitous matter observant a supervision is committed to conference from Canadians about their priorities.

“When negotiations begin, we will be prepared to work with a partners to update NAFTA, while fortifying Canada’s inhabitant seductiveness and station adult for a values,” he wrote.

Freeland agreed last week to appear before a Commons trade cabinet Aug. 14 to plead Canada’s priorities. That meeting is two days before talks with American and Mexican negotiators strictly start on Aug. 16.

From Ottawa, Horgan is streamer to Washington for some-more meetings Wednesday to defend B.C.’s trade interests.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nafta-data-storage-privacy-1.4220272?cmp=rss