privacy Archives - Monitor Telegram

‘Canadians are concerned’: Private data on the table in NAFTA negotiations

August 2, 2017

OTTAWA — The personal information of Canadians will be on the negotiating table when North American free trade talks begin this month.

The United States has served notice it wants an end to measures that restrict cross-border data flows, or require the use or installation of local computing facilities.

It is among the many American goals for the coming NAFTA renegotiation spelled out by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Privacy advocates say that means trouble for Canada’s ability to shield sensitive information such as health or financial data from the prying eyes of foreign agencies by storing it in computer servers on Canadian soil.

Deal that sends Canadian bank records to IRS is ‘illegal,’ lawyer tells U.S. committee

April 27, 2017

An agreement that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Canadian banking records being sent to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service could violate the U.S. constitution, a congressional subcommittee heard Wednesday.

Testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Senator Rand Paul said the intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) negotiated by the U.S. with various countries after it adopted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) did not get the proper authorization.

The controversial legislation, adopted by the U.S. in 2010, requires financial institutions outside the U.S. to report to the Internal Revenue Service on bank and financial accounts held by those subject to U.S. tax law.

While it was designed to ferret out offshore tax cheats, thousands of Canadian residents who have dual citizenship or various connections to the U.S. have also been subject to FATCA.