Canadian+Privacy+Laws

==This information was passed on to me by a BC educator (thanks, Laurie). It means that Canadian students' personal information should NEVER be stored on servers outside our country. Our students should not be registering on websites unless we know the servers are in Canada. Note: this is also true for university students in BC and Nova Scotia. ==

==Please check with your district or provincial officials and add any information that pertains to your province below. If your district has permission forms that parents can sign to allow their children to register, please post as well ==

==NOTE: to comply with their own COPPA laws, US websites require that children be 13 and over before they can register. ==

British Columbia

The BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act says this: (a) if the individual the information is about has identified the information and has consented, in the prescribed manner, to it being stored in or accessed from, as applicable, another jurisdiction; (b) if it is stored in or accessed from another jurisdiction for the purpose of disclosure allowed under this Act; (c) if it was disclosed under section 33.1 (1) (i.1). (http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/LOC/freeside/--%20F%20--/Freedom%20of%20Information%20and%20Protection%20of%20Privacy%20Act%20RSBC%201996%20c.%20165/00_Act/96165_03.xml#section30.1)
 * Storage and access must be in Canada**
 * 30.1** A public body must ensure that personal information in its custody or under its control is stored only in Canada and accessed only in Canada, unless one of the following applies:

There is nothing in the School Act about student information in particular, and I don’t think the federal Privacy Act says anything about where personal information should or should not be stored (at least as far as computer servers go).

This is a 2007 article from Macleans – “Universities struggle to protect student private info from U.S. Patriot Act.” http://www.macleans.ca/education/universities/article.jsp?content=20070921_134134_7944

This mentions the fact that BC amended its privacy law to include the Canadian storage stipulation in response to concerns about the Patriot Act.