Privacy Awareness Week

Privacy Awareness Week is a global effort held in May, coordinated by members of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA), to promote awareness of privacy issues and the importance of the protection of personal information.

Privacy Awareness Week 2026

The 2026 Canadian awareness campaign takes place from May 4 to 8, 2026. The theme is Protecting your privacy in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

Technologies like generative AI are fueled by the massive collection of data, including personal information. Addressing the privacy impacts of technological advancements such as generative AI is one of Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne’s strategic priorities.

It is important that AI and other related emerging technologies be developed and deployed in a responsible, privacy-preserving manner.

Organizations that develop or use AI products and services should apply privacy principles to ensure that they are protecting personal information. This includes, for example, being transparent about the way that personal information is used and the privacy risks involved, and implementing privacy by design into the development of tools.

Canadians using AI and its different applications, such as chatbots, can also take steps to put privacy first. For example, limiting what information is shared, reviewing privacy settings and not sharing personal data or photos of other people, including minors.

2026 campaign resources

For organizations

• How to apply privacy principles to generative AI technologies
• Principles for responsible, trustworthy and privacy-protective generative AI technologies
• Roundtable of G7 Data Protection and Privacy Authorities – Statement on AI and Children
• Roundtable of G7 Data Protection and Privacy Authorities – Statement on Generative AI
• Global Privacy Assembly – Resolution on meaningful human oversight of decisions involving AI systems

For individuals

Your privacy and AI chatbots

During Privacy Awareness Week, we invite you to share social media posts from our LinkedIn account (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada/Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée du Canada). Add the hashtag #PAW2026 to your posts to join the online conversation.