BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
What are the privacy risks of the No-Fly List?
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has reviewed the Passenger Protect Program and has significant concerns about it. The Commissioner has said that the Passenger Protect Program involves the secretive use of personal information. Some problems include:
- The process for putting an individual’s name on the list is secretive and not transparent
- Individuals are not told they are on the list until they try to board a plane
- The process followed at the Office of Reconsideration is not set out in legislation (which is examined by Parliament) but in administrative procedures, which are internal to the organization and can be changed without Parliamentary scrutiny
- There is risk of false positives: situations where an individual is incorrectly on the list or has the same name as another person on the list
- There is a serious risk that the list will be shared by airlines with other airlines, and shared by Transport Canada with other governments
- Canadians do not have a legally enforceable right of appeal
- There is no compensation for out-of-pocket expenses or other damages for being denied boarding based on the list
- Individuals have no right to be told whether they are on the list
According to an older report from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Transport Canada has not provided their office with evidence showing that no-fly lists make us safer. For more information, see the Annual Report of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada on the Privacy Act for the period April 1, 2007- March 31, 2008.
Updated 2024.07. 27
These pages were last updated and reviewed in the summer of 2024.
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