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(Bloomberg) — The Canadian government is proposing stricter privacy rules that would limit businesses from using personal data to charge consumers higher prices, while giving individuals more power over how their information is used.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government released legislation on Monday to update the country’s privacy laws. Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said the changes would restrict so-called surveillance pricing but stop short of banning it.
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“Companies should not have the ability to use your behavior, your location, your profile, your vulnerabilities, or your personal information to charge unfair prices. Your personal information should not be used against you for price gouging,” Solomon told reporters.
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The minister said the legislation aims to bar the use of data to target consumers with individualized prices when the harms outweigh the benefits. But the government doesn’t want to ban companies from rewarding consumers with better prices — through loyalty reward programs, for example.
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If passed, the new law would also require organizations to disclose more information about automated decisions, give Canadians the right to have their information deleted under certain circumstances and force businesses to treat children’s data as sensitive.
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Some jurisdictions in Canada and the US have already moved to address the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms to charge consumers more for products and services. Manitoba’s provincial government has brought forward legislation to outlaw surveillance pricing, while a new law in Maryland will make it illegal for grocers and third-party delivery services to use personal data to charge higher prices.
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The practice is also known as algorithmic pricing. A poll conducted by Abacus Data earlier this year found that about half of Canadians said it should be banned, while almost a third said it should be allowed but more strictly regulated.
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