The principles provide Canadians and Americans the rules under which the two governments will collaborate to protect their privacy rights in implementing the US-Canadian border action plan signed last year by the two countries, according to a Public Safety Canada news release.
Some of the principles laid out in the statement include: maintaining all reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy of information, and the continued right to have access and to request corrections of errors; proper security safeguards for information; relevance and necessity in the collection of personal information; redress before existing national authorities where a person believes that his/her privacy has been infringed; and effective oversight in the form of a public supervisory authority/authorities.
"These principles put privacy at the forefront of the border action plan and will help to ensure that the privacy rights of Canadians are respected as we work with the United States to secure our perimeter while accelerating and improving the legitimate flow of people, goods and services across our border", said Vic Toews, Canada’s minister of public safety.
"With over 200,000 people crossing our border every day and $500 billion worth of two-way trade every year, these principles establish a new long-term partnership built on a perimeter approach to security and economic competitiveness”, he added.