PogoWasRight.org

Menu
  • About
  • Privacy
Menu

New border bill allows sharing of biographic data

Posted on June 16, 2016June 26, 2025 by Dissent

Amanda Connolly reports:

Canadians crossing the border into the U.S. will soon have their personal information shared not only with the American government but among government departments and agencies as well for up to 15 years.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled new legislation on Wednesday afternoon that will see the Canada Border Services Agency collect biographic information on all travellers exiting Canada.

Read more on iPolitics.

If this is basically just passport info supplemented by date and time of border crossing, that doesn’t sound totally unreasonable. Well, until you think about whether either government does an adequate job of protecting such personal data and what would happen in the event of a data security breach. If Canada doesn’t require breach notification and is collecting U.S. citizens’ information, then maybe part of the deal needs to be that Canada agrees to notify individuals in the event of a data security breach.

And if it turns out that the U.S. abuses the information it receives on Canadians, does the deal call for the U.S. to actually delete all data previously stored? Do Canadians really believe that the U.S., once it has – gasp – DATA – in its hands – will actually relinquish it?

Something to think about while I go to get another cup of coffee.

Update: Here’s a press release on the bill.

By the way, the two countries do ask different questions at the border, as we noticed last week when going to Montreal for the Canadian GrandPrix. In both cases, we handed the border agents our passports, but in addition: when crossing into Canada, we were asked where we were from, what our occupations were, whether we had more than $10,000 in the car (“We wish!”), and whether we had any guns in the car.  On returning to the U.S., we were asked where we are from and what we had been doing in Canada. When my husband replied, “We went for the Canadian GrandPrix, but the American team didn’t win, so fuck ’em, we’re going home,” the agent laughed and sent us on our way.

Approximately 30 miles south of the border, on the NYS Thruway, we saw border control setting up a mandatory stop. We had seen that same southbound stop on our way north days earlier. I wonder what questions Canadians are asked at that stop and whether those data will be scanned into some database.  And no, I’m not thrilled that my own country would question me just for being on a thruway, but that 100-miles from the border bit doesn’t seem to give me grounds to protest…

 

 

Related posts:

  • What are your rights if border officials want to search your phone?
  • “We would be less confidential than Google” – Proton threatens to quit Switzerland over new surveillance law
Category: LawsNon-U.S.Surveillance

Post navigation

← New Report: FBI Can Access Hundreds of Millions of Face Recognition Photos
Chile Should Amend Privacy Law to Meet EU Standards →

Now more than ever

Search

Contact Me

Email: info@pogowasright.org

Mastodon: Infosec.Exchange/@PogoWasRight

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Flightradar24 receives reprimand for violating aircraft data privacy rights
  • Nebraska Attorney General Sues GM and OnStar Over Alleged Privacy Violations
  • Federal Court Allows Privacy Related Claims to Proceed in a Proposed Class Action Lawsuit Against Motorola
  • Italian Garante Adopts Statement on Health Data and AI
  • Trump administration is launching a new private health tracking system with Big Tech’s help
  • Attorney General James Takes Action to Protect Sensitive Personal Information of Tens of Millions of People
  • Searches of Your Private Data in the Cloud Amount to Illicit State Action

RSS Recent Posts on DataBreaches.net

  • Are Scattered Spider and ShinyHunters one group or two? And who did France arrest?
  • Why we shouldn’t just repeat ransomware groups’ claims, Sunday edition
  • Aftermath: More than 99% of providers opted to have Change Healthcare notify patients of its massive data breach
  • Qilin Ransomware Affiliate Panel Login Credentials Exposed Online
  • HCA Healthcare settled two lawsuits this week; one was over its 2023 data breach
©2025 PogoWasRight.org. All rights reserved.
Menu
  • About
  • Privacy