British Columbia Acts Against Patriot Act

An anonymous reader writes "According to the CBC, the province of British Columbia will guard against the Patriot Act. This affects U.S.-owned companies operating in BC. Canadian subsidiaries in BC will be prohibited from giving certain information to the U.S. government."

Comments

My blog

[trajano]

I actually blogged about this in my blog

I was watching CBC news just now and they were talking about B.C. resident's medical records at risk of being exposed to other parties because of the U.S. Patriot Act because maintenance of such data was outsourced to the U.S., the medical chief of B.C. also had the gall to say its not a problem because of outsourcing (yah right, the more exact problem is cheapskates running the group who actually want to reap more profits for themselves instead of providing a better service). The U.S. has already encountered this problem from outsourcing medical transcription data to Pakistan.

Its true that outsourcing does save money, but you are putting your data at risk when bringing it outside your country. Even if the other country would have compatible laws on privacy as yours, it does not mean they cannot change them at whim (e.g. the Patriot Act by Bush's government). Governments should keep their records secure within its borders, any outsourcing of such data is inviting a breach of trust against the public. Private companies who outsource their data should have the right to be sued by the public (we may already have that) if their private information is not held properly, I know we have laws saying that corporate data on people should not be shared outside the corporation without written consent by the party involved.

If I had the power (i.e., prime minister, mayor, etc), I would ban outsourcing of work done by government agencies which involves private data or tools that manipulate such data. I include manipulation (which includes application development and transcriptions) because other countries might not have laws or standards to maintain the same level that we require as a minimum by our standards. And even if they did, like the Patriot Act, it can change at whim.

I would probably still outsource some of the reference data and tools such as postal code database maintenance, lists of parks and maps of Canada to other countries since its public information that won't affect anyone directly, though it still needs to be QAed over here. That would at least reduce our costs and menial tasks so we can work on more important things like enjoying life and having fun.

Re:My blog

[some guy I know]

because of the U.S. Patriot Act

It's not the "U.S. Patriot" Act (nor is it just the "Patriot" Act, as the blurb states); it's the "USAPATRIOT" Act.
Please use the full name.
The "USAPATRIOT" Act has nothing to do with patriotism, so calling it the "Patriot Act" or "U.S. Patriot Act" is misleading.
Personally, I pronounce it "the you sap at riot act" to avoid confusion.

Re:I am so glad to hear this!

[Bob_Robertson]

I do so wish the USA would go back inside its own borders and leave the rest of us alone.

Heck, I live in the US and feel exactly the same way.

I wish the US government would go back inside its "Ten Mile Square" own borders and leave the rest of us alone.

The GPL isn't a cancer, GOVERNMENT is.

Bob-

USAPATRIOT not Patriot.

[Stephen Samuel]

If I had the points I would have modded the parent insightful not funny. How we name things does taint the way that we think of them.
It's a really bad idea to link patriotism with ratting out your neighbour, ignoring civil rights and secretly jailing people.