Alberta’s privacy watchdog concerned incoming law allows Crown to sell customers’ personal information
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/albertas-privacy-watchdog-concerned-incoming-120000569.html
Publish Date: 2026-05-11 08:00:00
Source Domain: ca.news.yahoo.com
Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner says newly passed legislation allowing a Crown corporation to sell users’ personal information to a private company sets a “concerning precedent” for how the province handles sensitive data.
It could soon be legal for Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) to sell Play Alberta, its online gambling platform, along with the personal information of customers now that legislators have passed Bill 31, The Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, 2026.
Alberta’s relatively new Protection of Privacy Act (POPA), which came into effect June 11, 2025, prohibits public bodies from selling personal information for any purpose.
The red tape bill, which passed in the legislature on Thursday, allows a narrow exemption from that rule, allowing AGLC to sell personal information if cabinet is confident there are reasonable measures in place to protect it.
“This sets a concerning precedent,” privacy commissioner Diane McLeod said in a written statement to CBC News last week. “As far as we are aware, this would be the first instance in which personal information collected by a public body would be sold to a private sector organization under POPA.
“What are Albertans to believe if a clearly stated prohibition in POPA is nullified through another piece of legislation?”
Leaving the door open for other laws to override privacy protections was a possibility McLeod warned the government about in 2024 when the revamped privacy law was introduced, she said.
McLeod said she is also concerned about the potential transaction itself. Play Alberta may be storing information such as demographic data, as well as geolocation and behavioural records about members’ online gambling habits, her statement said. She questioned whether people who created an account would know if their information would be sold.
As of October 2025, Play Alberta had 434,000 registered accounts.
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