A Canadian Press report on the federal government’s newly tabled privacy bill and its approach to surveillance pricing, carrying the NDP’s response. Surveillance pricing has been a signature policy plank for Avi Lewis since the NDP leadership campaign, and the party is pressing for a full ban rather than the deferred regulatory approach the government has outlined.
Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon said the government wants to be “super careful” in tackling surveillance pricing, and that the rules are unlikely to be in place before 2028. The bill — the government’s third attempt to update decades-old private-sector privacy law — would task a new Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission of Canada with issuing guidance on what counts as surveillance pricing; officials expect roughly 18 months to stand up the regulator. Solomon framed reward and loyalty programs as a reason for caution, defining surveillance pricing as when “your behaviour or location or even your inferred characteristics are used to basically give prices that are unfair or inappropriate to you.”
NDP Leader Avi Lewis, in an emailed statement, said his party will keep pushing for a “full and immediate ban” on surveillance pricing:
“Minister Solomon’s comments about reward points are a red herring and they echo misleading talking points used by major retailers who are lobbying to stop a ban on surveillance pricing. It is an attempt to muddy the waters and distract from the real issue — big corporations and big tech companies using your own personal data to rip you off.”
The report notes that a Manitoba NDP government bill banning the practice provincially became law on June 1, prohibiting retailers from using consumers’ personal data to raise prices based on algorithmically determined information. An Abacus Data poll this spring found most Canadians want the government to ban or regulate algorithmic price-setting.
See also the same-day IAPP analysis of Bill C-36 archived for this date, and the June 15 coverage of the bill’s introduction.