Privacy vs. Public Good: Canada’s Data Dilemma in a Crisis

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Health Authority of Canada (PHAC) was trying to understand movement patterns of the population to optimize health services, such as delivery of vaccines. PHAC approached mobile phone network providers, including Telus, requesting anonymized data about the movement patterns of their cell phone users. On the one hand, it seems reasonable for governments to expect data to be shared for the public good in the event of an emergency. On the other hand, such data can be used for purposes other than those originally intended, and may be abused.

The data governance officer at Telus, Pam Snively, now faced a dilemma: to share and support PHAC, or not to share and protect Telus from negative legal and public perception consequences.