Experts are raising alarms over the protection of Canadian health data, deemed the most valuable health dataset globally, in light of the Trump administration’s ambitions to dominate the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape. With many Canadian hospitals storing sensitive data on cloud servers operated by American companies, concerns grow about potential vulnerabilities stemming from U.S. legislation.
Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as the “Godfather of AI,” has had incredible impact on the field. In recent years, he’s done this by example through his professorship in the University of Toronto’s Department of Computer Science and his role as chief scientific adviser at Toronto’s Vector Institute. His influence reflects upon Canada’s cutting-edge role in AI research. The use of Canadian health data with U.S.-based technology is going to lead to serious questions about data security and privacy.
Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa. In this episode, he underscores the global impact of U.S. laws on Canadian health data. He says that the political landscape between Canada and the U.S. requires a re-examination of existing data privacy protections.
“The recent political events in the relationship between Canada and the United States requires at a minimum a willingness to re-examine or rethink just about everything.” – Michael Geist
Dr. Kumanan Wilson is a research chair in digital health innovation at the University of Ottawa. As a scientist at The Ottawa Hospital, he understands how vital health information from electronic medical records is in training AI algorithms. He’s quick to point out that algorithms can only yield correct results if they’re trained with data that is diverse and representative. Well, Canada has this data by the bucket-load.
Canadian health data is an exceptional asset, said Natalie Raffoul, an intellectual property lawyer based in Ottawa. She calls attention to its immeasurable worth. No other jurisdiction in the world could offer such a detailed dataset, made possible by Canada’s universal public healthcare system and diverse ethnic population.
“Our health data is the most valuable health data set in the world.” – Natalie Raffoul
As Raffoul explains, the confusion over foreign subsidiaries adds an extra layer of confusion in terms of protecting this sensitive data. And she cautions that simply having a Canadian branch of a foreign multi-national isn’t the same thing as full protection.
“Putting valuable data and intellectual property in the hands of a Canadian subsidiary to a foreign multinational is essentially like handing it to a foreign multinational.” – Natalie Raffoul
Storage practices related to Canadian health data add another layer of complexity. Storing data within Canada might appear to be safer from a data privacy perspective, that doesn’t protect it from being subject to U.S. legal requests.
“Even if the data is retained in Canada that does not provide a full guardrail against a U.S. court demand for disclosure.” – Michael Geist
Geist expresses strong criticism of current Canadian privacy legislation. He claims in the lawsuit that their lack of serious penalties does not do enough to safeguard sensitive information.
“Canadian law on its own — at least as privacy law currently stands — isn’t really going to be enough because there really isn’t much by way of penalties.” – Michael Geist
To address these threats, scientists recommend a multi-pronged approach. One such method is implementing a blocking statute that would impose severe penalties on U.S. companies disclosing Canadian data without consent. This would go a long way in strengthening privacy laws and ensuring greater protection for our health information.
Dr. Amol Verma is a professor at the University of Toronto, where he researches and teaches the use of AI in medicine. He’s convinced there’s a way for Canada to strengthen its AI position, while safeguarding its most precious asset – its health data. He’s adamant about the need to work together between provinces to ensure resources are used most effectively.
“That’s where I think there’s a really exciting opportunity in this moment because our political leaders are talking about the need for our provinces to work together.” – Dr. Amol Verma
Verma urges that Canada needs to be bold and ambitious in order to maintain and defend its top position in AI.
“I think there’s a window of opportunity where Canada can capitalize on its strengths and lead. But if we are slow or complacent, then we will fall behind.” – Dr. Amol Verma
Relying exclusively on American cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud makes security experts nervous. If U.S. legislation to establish a federal health data passes, these vulnerabilities could be opened up.
Dr. Kumanan Wilson this would be a problem, as all the major cloud providers are American, and thus vulnerable to U.S. governmental pressures.
“Our major cloud providers are all American. They’re AWS — Amazon Web Services — Microsoft Azure, and there’s Google Cloud. And all of these could potentially be vulnerable to U.S. legislation if the Trump administration wanted to access that data.” – Dr. Kumanan Wilson
