This week, The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat updated its Directive on Automated Decision-Making, outlining rigorous standards for transparency, fairness, and oversight of AI systems used in federal administrative decisions.

While the directive applies specifically to government institutions, we may be catching an early glimpse into what kind of policy we may expect to see in the coming months from our new government. The influence of this release may extend into the broader ecosystem of ad tech vendors, platforms and agency systems that have developed, use or plan to build AI-based tools to assist with ad, budget or content decisioning.

Key elements of the Directive include:

• Mandatory algorithmic impact assessments before deployment
• Public explanations of how decisions are made using AI
• Ongoing monitoring for fairness, bias, and human rights implications
• Specific recourse and documentation requirements

For agencies or platforms working on federal campaigns or offering automated decisioning tools to government, compliance may soon become table stakes.

IAB Canada is monitoring these developments and their implications for our sector, particularly as similar accountability expectations grow in private-sector AI deployment.

We encourage our members to read the full directive. We will be monitoring this closely in the coming weeks and will provide any updates as they become available.

As we head into the lazier days of summer, we wanted to resurface a key document published by The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s (OPC) a while ago. The OPC’s Strategic Plan for 2024-2027 outlines priorities that directly impact the digital advertising industry – especially with a growing focus on protecting Canadian’s privacy. The full plan can be downloaded here. We highly recommend you add it to the summer reading list.

Here’s a quick refresher of the OPC’s three strategic goals:

Maximization of Impact:

• Promote privacy rights regardless of legislative changes. 
• Increasing the use of data and business intelligence for decision-making and strategic choices.
• Optimize service delivery to more quickly handle complaints.
• Cultivate strategic partnerships with privacy authorities and organizations. 
• Prepare for efficient enforcement of new laws.

Addressing Developments in Technology:

• Build internal tech expertise through training and knowledge sharing.
• Partner with tech organizations and set privacy standards for new tools and services.

Promoting, Enhancing, and Protecting Children’s Privacy

• Push for children’s privacy protections to be built into products and services.
• Create youth-focused education and outreach.
• Make children’s privacy a priority in investigations and partnerships. 

With the majority of Canadians concerned about how their data is used, this plan sets the tone for future privacy enforcement. We recommend reviewing the full plan and considering how it may apply to your marketing and advertising activities. 

If you would like to discuss this further or any other topics, please reach out to us at [email protected].