Young people's privacy is an important and complex issue in our digital age. Young people have the right to keep their personal information private, but they also face many challenges and risks when they use online platforms and services.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada highlighted the importance of privacy protections for young Canadians in a recent resolution.
In the resolution, the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Privacy Commissioners and Ombuds emphasized that the Canadian government and organizations need to do more to protect young people from well-documented harms (such as mental health-related harms) with respect to products and services that concern or impact young people in a digital environment.
In addition to calling for legislative reform, the resolution outlines specific recommendations for public and private organizations that collect, use or disclose young people's personal information. These recommendations include:
- Build in young people's privacy and best interests by design
- Be transparent
- Set privacy protective settings by default, and turn off tracking and profiling
- Reject deceptive practices
- Limit the disclosure of personal information
- Allow for deletion or deindexing and limiting retention
- Facilitate access to, and correction of, personal information
Please see the resolution for more information.
The Privacy Commissioners and Ombuds also supplemented the resolution with two companion documents to help organizations further implement these changes:
- Putting best interests of young people at the forefront of privacy and access to personal information offers additional guidance for organizations about how to concretely address the principles set out in the resolution. For example, how to build in young people's privacy and best interests by design and how to be transparent.
- How organizations can help protect young people online is aimed at young people and those who care for them. It explains the contents of the resolution in plain language and shares steps that organizations should take to protect young people's privacy in a digital environment.
Any Canadian organization that collects, uses or discloses the personal information of young people should review their privacy practices and programs to comply with the above recommendations and to mitigate any related privacy risks.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
