legal info SHARING FOLKS 
YA BOYEEE!
When Canadians are able to buy legal recreational marijuana sometime this year, we are going to start generating a lot of consumer data.
Some of it will be clearly linked to individuals: credit card purchases at physical stores and online ordering to home addresses, for example.
If your Canadian marijuana-buying data ends up on a server in the United States, could it make its way to U.S. border officials? There’s little to stop it, privacy experts say.
And that could have lasting consequences. Canadians can be barred for life from the United States — even after legalization here — if a border officer decides that they are an “abuser” of marijuana.
“Under current technical instructions, use in the last year would qualify as a drug abuser,” says Scott Railton, an immigration lawyer in Bellingham, Wash.
READ MORE: Pot use after it’s legalized in Canada could still get you barred from U.S., lawyer warns
“If they were able to access that data point for home delivery and everything, it would open the door for more questions.”
A U.S. border officer who knew of a Canadian’s marijuana buying history could quickly put the person in an impossible position — admit to marijuana use and be banned as a “drug abuser,” or deny it and be banned for lying. (Immigration lawyers advise refusing to answer the question, which will probably get you turned back on that one occasion, but doesn’t carry lasting consequences.)
WATCH: Many British Columbians who travel south of the border may find themselves in legal limbo when Canada legalizes marijuana this summer. Ted Chernecki explains.
“Any information that goes outside of Canada is up for grabs by local law enforcement,” says Heather Black, a former assistant federal privacy commissioner. “It’s part of the globalization of data. It goes all over the place.”
“American authorities are pretty greedy for scooping up information, and they clearly don’t confine themselves to the borders of the United States.”
And under U.S. law, Canadians don’t have the safeguards over their U.S.-held data that Americans would have, explains University of Toronto law professor Lisa Austin.
“In Canada, we would be protected by the Charter. In the U.S. we’re not protected by the Fourth Amendment, as non-U.S. persons, so there’s no constitutional protection for our data.”
Mastercard, Visa and the CIBCdidn’t respond to questions about where credit card data is stored. However, the privacy agreements of all five of the big banks warn that customers’ financial data can be stored outside Canada, and be subject to the laws of the country it’s stored in.
Some don’t specify the U.S. by name, but others do. BMO’s agreement, for example, says that companies holding data “may be located outside of Canada (such as in the United States) and may be required to disclose information to courts, government authorities, regulators or law enforcement in accordance with applicable law in that country.”
WATCH: Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told the CBC that he believes banning Canadians from entering the U.S. for admitting to using marijuana is “ludicrous.”
READ MORE: Canada looking to change policy that bans marijuana users from the U.S.
In a 2005 decision, the federal privacy commissioner noted that Canadians’ credit card data held in the U.S. could be obtained by American authorities under the PATRIOT Act, an anti-terrorism law passed in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
At issue was a CIBC Visa cardholder agreement in which cardholders were asked to acknowledge that ” … my information may be processed and stored in the United States and that United States governments, courts or law enforcement or regulatory agencies may be able to obtain disclosure of my information through the laws of the United States.”
Under the law ” … certain U.S. intelligence and police surveillance and information collection tools have been expanded, and procedural hurdles for U.S. law enforcement agencies have been minimized. Under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can access records held in the United States,” the decision said.
READ MORE: Legal marijuana in Canada could slow border crossings, expert fears
Canadians banned from the U.S. can apply for a waiver allowing them to cross the border, but the process is cumbersome and expensive, and the application has to be restarted from scratch every few years for the rest of the person’s life.
“It could be a public relations disaster if people realize they’re sending sensitive information across the border that could get them banned from crossing the border,” Austin says.
“Lots of people smoke pot, and we are all going to want to cross the border. It can screw up your whole work life if you can’t cross.”
WATCH: A BC woman who admitted she smoked marijuana is now allowed to cross the border but only if she pays a hefty fee every year for a waiver. Jill Bennett explains.
Depending on the province, Canadian marijuana buyers could leave identifying data in two ways:
YA BOYEEE!When Canadians are able to buy legal recreational marijuana sometime this year, we are going to start generating a lot of consumer data.
Some of it will be clearly linked to individuals: credit card purchases at physical stores and online ordering to home addresses, for example.
If your Canadian marijuana-buying data ends up on a server in the United States, could it make its way to U.S. border officials? There’s little to stop it, privacy experts say.
And that could have lasting consequences. Canadians can be barred for life from the United States — even after legalization here — if a border officer decides that they are an “abuser” of marijuana.
“Under current technical instructions, use in the last year would qualify as a drug abuser,” says Scott Railton, an immigration lawyer in Bellingham, Wash.
READ MORE: Pot use after it’s legalized in Canada could still get you barred from U.S., lawyer warns
“If they were able to access that data point for home delivery and everything, it would open the door for more questions.”
A U.S. border officer who knew of a Canadian’s marijuana buying history could quickly put the person in an impossible position — admit to marijuana use and be banned as a “drug abuser,” or deny it and be banned for lying. (Immigration lawyers advise refusing to answer the question, which will probably get you turned back on that one occasion, but doesn’t carry lasting consequences.)
WATCH: Many British Columbians who travel south of the border may find themselves in legal limbo when Canada legalizes marijuana this summer. Ted Chernecki explains.
“Any information that goes outside of Canada is up for grabs by local law enforcement,” says Heather Black, a former assistant federal privacy commissioner. “It’s part of the globalization of data. It goes all over the place.”
“American authorities are pretty greedy for scooping up information, and they clearly don’t confine themselves to the borders of the United States.”
And under U.S. law, Canadians don’t have the safeguards over their U.S.-held data that Americans would have, explains University of Toronto law professor Lisa Austin.
“In Canada, we would be protected by the Charter. In the U.S. we’re not protected by the Fourth Amendment, as non-U.S. persons, so there’s no constitutional protection for our data.”
Mastercard, Visa and the CIBCdidn’t respond to questions about where credit card data is stored. However, the privacy agreements of all five of the big banks warn that customers’ financial data can be stored outside Canada, and be subject to the laws of the country it’s stored in.
Some don’t specify the U.S. by name, but others do. BMO’s agreement, for example, says that companies holding data “may be located outside of Canada (such as in the United States) and may be required to disclose information to courts, government authorities, regulators or law enforcement in accordance with applicable law in that country.”
WATCH: Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told the CBC that he believes banning Canadians from entering the U.S. for admitting to using marijuana is “ludicrous.”
READ MORE: Canada looking to change policy that bans marijuana users from the U.S.
In a 2005 decision, the federal privacy commissioner noted that Canadians’ credit card data held in the U.S. could be obtained by American authorities under the PATRIOT Act, an anti-terrorism law passed in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
At issue was a CIBC Visa cardholder agreement in which cardholders were asked to acknowledge that ” … my information may be processed and stored in the United States and that United States governments, courts or law enforcement or regulatory agencies may be able to obtain disclosure of my information through the laws of the United States.”
Under the law ” … certain U.S. intelligence and police surveillance and information collection tools have been expanded, and procedural hurdles for U.S. law enforcement agencies have been minimized. Under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can access records held in the United States,” the decision said.
READ MORE: Legal marijuana in Canada could slow border crossings, expert fears
Canadians banned from the U.S. can apply for a waiver allowing them to cross the border, but the process is cumbersome and expensive, and the application has to be restarted from scratch every few years for the rest of the person’s life.
“It could be a public relations disaster if people realize they’re sending sensitive information across the border that could get them banned from crossing the border,” Austin says.
“Lots of people smoke pot, and we are all going to want to cross the border. It can screw up your whole work life if you can’t cross.”
WATCH: A BC woman who admitted she smoked marijuana is now allowed to cross the border but only if she pays a hefty fee every year for a waiver. Jill Bennett explains.
Depending on the province, Canadian marijuana buyers could leave identifying data in two ways:
