Young Canadians Are Ready for Privacy Reform. Is Parliament?
Young Canadians Are Ready for Privacy Reform. Is Parliament?
https://openmedia.org/article/item/young-canadians-are-ready-for-privacy-reform-is-parliament
Publish Date: 2026-06-18 12:44:00
Source Domain: openmedia.org
UBC students partnered with OpenMedia to find out how young Canadians feel about their digital privacy rights. The answer? They care deeply but feel powerless. With Bill C-36 just introduced in Parliament, will Canada finally get the privacy law reform people deserve?
Earlier this year, OpenMedia partnered with students from University of British Columbia (UBC) to find out what do young Canadians think about their digital privacy rights. What they discovered is both encouraging and sobering: young people care about privacy far more than the “nothing to hide” stereotype suggests. But they also feel deeply ill-equipped to do anything about it, and increasingly skeptical that the system will give them any protections.
The UBC team began with a deceptively simple question: What privacy rights do we have in Canada to see, edit, or delete the data giant online platforms we use hold on us? Over five days in March 2026, they conducted a survey of 78 Canadian youth, primarily UBC students. They also launched four short-form videos across OpenMedia’s social media platforms to explain core privacy concerns Canadians face. Their central topic was the enforcement gap in Canadian privacy law, where the Privacy Commissioner lacks the authority to issue binding orders or place meaningful fines against companies that violate your rights.
The findings
Young people care about privacy, but feel shut out. A full 93.6% of respondents said data privacy is important to them, and 58.9% already believe their rights are being violated online. The problem isn’t apathy. It’s that only 3.8% feel confident in their understanding of Canadian privacy legislation. That gap between caring deeply and feeling equipped to act is real. Young people are ready to engage. They just need the right tools to do it.
76.9% of survey respondents use short-form social media as their primary source of media. The four videos tested distinct formats: a legislative explainer, an emotional…
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