| Canada has two federal privacy laws, the | | | | personal information about customers or |
| Privacy Act and the Personal Information | | | | employees that was collected, used or |
| Protection and Electronic Documents Act | | | | disclosed in the course of commercial |
| (PIPEDA). The Privacy Act imposes obligations | | | | activities by the federally regulated private |
| on some 150 federal government departments | | | | sector, organizations such as banks, |
| and agencies to respect privacy rights by | | | | airlines, and telecommunications companies. |
| limiting the collection, use and disclosure | | | | The Act now applies to personal information |
| of personal information. Individuals are also | | | | collected, used or disclosed by the retail |
| protected by the PIPEDA that sets out ground | | | | sector, publishing companies, the service |
| rules for how private sector organizations | | | | industry, manufacturers and other |
| may collect, use or disclose personal | | | | provincially regulated organizations. Real |
| information in the course of commercial | | | | estate is, of course, one sector of the |
| activities.Initially, PIPEDA applied only to | | | | service industry. |