Canada Moves Toward a New “Right to Be Forgotten” for Children and Adults
Canada is once again asking a key question of the digital age: who truly controls personal data — companies, online platforms, or citizens themselves? The federal government has introduced a major privacy reform bill aimed at giving people stronger control over their information and making children’s data a special priority.
The central idea is that personal information is not just technical data. In today’s digital economy, it is part of a person’s private life. That means companies that collect, store and use personal information will be expected to act with greater care and clearer justification.
The bill pays particular attention to minors. Children’s data would be treated as information requiring a higher level of protection. Online services, apps and other organizations would face stricter limits when collecting, using or sharing information about children. Parents would be able to make requests on behalf of their children, while minors themselves would gain broader rights to demand deletion of their personal data.
For adults, the reform also introduces an important change: Canadians would be able to request deletion of personal information when a company no longer needs it for the purpose for which it was originally collected. In practice, this could apply to old accounts, marketing profiles, outdated digital records and other information that continues to be stored without a clear reason.
The proposal comes amid growing concern about the impact of social media, algorithms and artificial intelligence on children. Canada’s privacy regulator has repeatedly emphasized that young people need practical ways to exercise and protect their privacy rights online.
The bill also complements Ottawa’s broader efforts to make social media services and AI chatbots safer for minors. If adopted by Parliament, the reform would become one of the most significant updates to Canadian privacy law in years and would bring Canada closer to stricter international standards for digital privacy protection.