HALCO and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network wrote to Canadian government privacy authorities to express grave concern with executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on January 25, 2017.
The order, titled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States”, appears to explicitly direct the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other U.S. agencies to disregard any previous policy positions and to exclude foreign nationals’ personally identifiable information from any protection under the U.S. Privacy Act.
The letters express our grave concern about the impact the executive order could have on the privacy interests of people with HIV and all Ontario residents, and, the letters ask Canadian authorities to review the implications that the executive order could have.
You can read the letters on our website:
After we posted the above announcement, we received replies from both Canadian authorities:
- Privacy Commissioner of Canada (2017May1).
- Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (2017Apr20).
HALCO provides free legal services for people living with HIV in Ontario. If you are living with HIV in Ontario, please contact us for free legal advice.