U.S. can share Canadian border info under privacy deal

The United States will be allowed to share information about Canadians with other countries under a sweeping new border deal.

A newly released binational privacy charter says that in most cases it won't have to tell Canada about its plan to pass along the information.

Information-sharing about security cases has sometimes been a sore point between the two countries since the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Canada and the U.S. jointly released the 12-point statement of privacy principles late Thursday, covering areas including data quality, information security, effective oversight, and redress for people whose privacy is infringed.

The principles help flesh out a perimeter security deal struck by the two countries last year.

The deal is intended to help smooth the passage of people and cargo over the Canada-U.S. border while bolstering continental security.

Entry data could be passed to 3rd party

The most contentious feature could be the plan to exchange entry information collected from all persons at the border, which would serve as a record of exit from the other country.

The privacy charter's preamble says greater information sharing between Canada and the U.S. "is vital to protecting the security of our citizens" and that personal information is to be provided, received and used only in accordance with domestic and international laws applicable to the two countries.

The principles say Canada or the U.S. may transfer information received from the other to a third country.

For instance, the U.S. could send information received from Canada to an ally abroad. However, the U.S. could do so only if American law allowed it. And it must be done in accordance with international agreements and arrangements.

In the absence of such "international agreements and arrangements," the U.S. must inform Canada prior to the transfer, or as soon as possible after the transfer in the case of urgent circumstances.

The federal privacy commissioner's office, which was consulted during drafting of the principles, said Thursday it would "take some time to read these in order to see how any suggestions we provided may have been reflected."