PIPEDA: Who Gets to See Your Health Information (and Who Doesn't)

PIPEDA is Canada's federal privacy law for private-sector organizations, and health information gets the highest level of protection under it — this matters a lot right now, when you're sharing medical details with employers, insurers, and platforms. Your rights, plainly: 1. Right to know — they have to tell you why they're collecting your information, before or when they collect it 2. Right to consent — meaningful consent is required, and for health data specifically, it needs to be explicit (not just a buried checkbox) 3. Right to access — you can request to see exactly what personal information an organization holds on you 4. Right to correct — if something's wrong, you can demand it be fixed 5. Right to withdraw consent — you can pull consent at any time (with some legal exceptions) Worth knowing: some provinces have their own stricter rules that apply instead of PIPEDA — Quebec's Law 25, Alberta's PIPA, and BC's PIPA. If an organization mishandles your health information: 1. Review their privacy policy first — see what they claim to do 2. Ask directly what information they have and why 3. Request corrections if anything's wrong 4. If they won't cooperate or you suspect a violation, file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada — it's free and doesn't require a lawyer