Since January 2002, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) applies to all personal information (including health information) that an organization collects, uses or discloses in connection with a federal business or that it discloses outside provincial borders for consideration.

Since January 2004, PIPEDA further applies to all personal information that an organization collects, uses or discloses in the course of commercial activity within provincial borders. In the latter case, an organization and/or its activities may be exempted from PIPEDA if they are otherwise covered by substantially similar provincial legislation. Hence, the implications of PIPEDA for health research are important, because either PIPEDA will apply directly to some researchers and/or their activities, or because PIPEDA sets the standards which provinces will seek to adopt in substantially similar legislation.

To raise awareness of the new federal legislation governing the protection of personal information and its possible implications for health researchers, CIHR's Ethics Office has published the following:

• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act - Questions and Answers for Health Researchers
• Discussion Document resulting from a CIHR Consultation Session held June 1, 2001
  re: Draft Recommendations for the Interpretation and Application of the Protection of Personal Information and Electronic Documents (PIPED) Act in health research
  [ PDF (85 KB) | Help ]
• Recommendations for the Interpretation and Application of the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act (S.C.2000, c.5) in the Health Research Context (November 2001)
  [ HTML | PDF (143 KB) | Help ]

See also:

• Industry Canada: PIPEDA Awareness Raising Tools (PARTs) Initiative For The Health Sector - Questions and Answers
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

For additional information on this issue, consult the Privacy and Confidentiality workshops section of the CIHR Website.

All Privacy and Confidentiality of Data in Health Research documents are available at the Ethics Resources Publications section of the CIHR Website.