Canada and the United States have shared policies about the exchange of personal data by immigration and customs officers at the border, but Canada's privacy commissioner says those rules are routinely ignored:
Although the Canada-U.S. agreements require that the exchanges of information be done in writing, except in emergencies, it appears to be common practice for Canadian customs officers to respond to verbal requests, reading out information in border services agency databases to their U.S. counterparts.
"It seems to be quite often honoured in the breach, from what we understand from our interviews," [Privacy Commissioner Jennifer] Stoddart told The Globe and Mail. "There's a lot of informal exchange of personal information." That means the border services agency does not know what information is being shared or how often, and cannot verify information is not being handed out improperly, or illegally.
