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MONTREAL – Some brief lines of the new North American trade agreement have caused a shock in Canada, at least in some quarters.
"No party prohibits or restricts the cross-border transfer of information, including personal data" for commercial purposes, reads the text of the tentative agreement signed Sunday between Canada, the United States and the United States. United and Mexico.
He adds that no member country can oblige a company to store "computer facilities" on its soil.
These measures mean the abandonment of rights that Canadians have often perceived as an obstacle to the protection of privacy against their powerful neighbor to the south, particularly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on Canadians. terms of which extensive legislation has given government agencies wide latitude to monitor individuals.
Physically storing Canadians' data on their own land – a relatively common practice – has been reported by some as security for US surveillance agencies or US police warrants.
This week, Canadian data experts criticized the new type of free trade, saying it undermines Canada's sovereignty.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland hold a press conference on the US-Mexico-Canada agreement on October 1, 2018. (Sean Kilpatrick / AP)
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But those who are deeply involved in the debate say that it is also more complicated than most people realize. In the era of Big Data, the importance of localization is not yet clear, they say, and fears inspired by post-11/11 surveillance are outdated.
"I think realistically superpowers intelligence agencies would be able to access the data, whether it's stored on a server in Toronto or Chicago," said Omer Tene, vice -president of American society. International Association of Professionals for the Protection of Privacy. "Intelligence agencies work very closely together and can overcome larger technological hurdles than [the border]. "
The new trade agreement, a successor to the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, marks the first time the two countries formally negotiate the role of data in trade.
Practically, the new regulations will not cause much immediate change, experts say.
President Trump announces a North American free trade agreement revamped in the White House Rose Garden on October 1, 2018. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP)
Many Canadian contracts have requested or encouraged local data storage, particularly federal government contracts. This has led to the creation of new "cloud installations" in Canada, including one of Google's sites in Montreal, and this type of contract demand will still be allowed under the new commercial agreement.
However, only two provinces, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, have passed laws requiring the local storage of certain citizen data, which will be prohibited under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement. or the USMCA.
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Nova Scotia's privacy lawyer, David Fraser, says these provincial laws are a "brutal tool" that can protect local jobs but offer little extra security.
There are greater concerns, he said. "There is the problem of hacking. There is the problem of interception, "he said. "Frankly, I saw. . . Health care providers decide that they would use a less secure data center in Canada rather than a much more secure data center in the United States. "
The US government's access to Canadian data is also complicated, he said. Many Canadian data would not be "particularly interesting" for US agencies.
In any case, the location of a data installation is also secondary. "It could be owned by a US company in a Canadian data center and the US company is still subject to US law."
Confidentiality aside, the flow of data is an important business issue. Requiring local data storage in Canada, while feasible for giants such as Google and Amazon – or any smaller Canadian company – can create additional insurmountable costs for new US companies hoping to do business in Canada. Being able to use US storage can also reduce costs for Canadian businesses.
The world of Big Data is changing so rapidly that the debate has changed even in the year since the beginning of the NAFTA negotiations. Last spring, the adoption of US cloud law allowed US law enforcement agencies to obtain digital information stored in Canada and other countries – and Canadian authorities to do the same in the United States. Canada did not say it was considering concluding such an agreement, but if it did, it would make one of Canada's concerns essentially theoretical.
This pace of change, however, is what worries Canadian critics of the new trade provisions.
Ordinary people are only beginning to understand the data path they are creating, and governments are just starting to adjust. In recent years, for example, the European Union has created barriers around the data of its citizens, including rules governing where they can be stored.
The USMCA limits the ability of Canadian provincial governments to adjust their policies in the future, said Michael Geist, an expert on privacy and digital law at the University of Ottawa.
"While personal information is of growing concern and concern, I believe that pressure on governments to establish such restrictions or requirements is a real possibility," he said. he declares. "Which is one of the reasons you see this kind of provisions included in these agreements."
Canada is too early and too early, said Benjamin Bergen, executive director of the Canadian Innovators Council, a technology group, in a statement.
"Trade experts and economists warned that it was too early to incorporate data into trade agreements," he said.
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