Protection of Privacy Act (POPA)

Alberta’s Protection of Privacy Act (POPA) establishes the legal framework for how public bodies collect, use and disclose personal information. It grants individuals the right to request corrections to their own personal information, and it governs the creation, use and disclosure of data derived from personal information and non-personal information under specific and limited circumstances. All decisions made under POPA may be reviewed by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of Alberta. 

POPA applies to all personal information collected, used or disclosed by a public body and all data derived from personal information and non-personal data created, used or disclosed by a public body but does not apply to specific records excluded from the application of POPA. 

Examples of excluded records from POPA include, but are not limited to:

  • Teaching materials of both an employee of a post-secondary educational body and the post-secondary educational body; 
  • A question to be used on an examination or test, 
  • Research information of an employee of a post-secondary educational body; 
  • Published works collected by a library of a public body in accordance with the library’s acquisition of materials policy;

Definitions

  • Data derived from personal information means data created by data matching, and that identifies any individual whose personal information was used in the data matching. 
  • Data matching means linking personal information between two or more databases or other electronic sources of information.
  • Non-personal data means data, including data derived from personal information, that has been generated, modified or anonymized so that it does not identify any individual, and includes synthetic data and any other type of non-personal data identified in the POPA regulations.
  • Personal Information means recorded information about an identifiable individual, including but not limited to: name, home address, personal email address, age, and an identifying number assigned to the individual.
  • Examples of public bodies include post-secondary institutions, Government departments, municipalities, and health authorities.

For more information about POPA, visit the Government of Alberta’s website.

Resources