Announcement

OPC updates its information-sharing agreement with the Dutch data protection authority

March 10, 2022

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has renewed and updated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, the data protection authority for the Netherlands, to facilitate information sharing between the two organizations.

The OPC has signed similar memorandums of understanding with a number of other data protection authorities as part of the goal of protecting personal information. The Office is committed to collaborating with partners in Canada and internationally. The updated MOU will replace an earlier version of the agreement which was first signed in 2011.

The collaborative framework has led to joint investigations by the two data protection authorities, including the first-ever global joint privacy investigation, into WhatsApp, and more recently, our respective investigations into Microsoft Windows 10.

Memorandums of Understanding are helpful because they allow the OPC to collaborate with other data protection regulators when it comes to enforcement actions against organizations who may operate beyond national borders and beyond the reach of individual countries’ regulatory authorities.

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) authorizes the OPC to consult, coordinate its activities and share information with its domestic and international counterparts. The newly announced MOU with the Dutch provides a framework to allow the two organizations to communicate and cooperate about matters arising under PIPEDA and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.