PIPEDA Fair Information Principle 4 – Limiting Collection

Reviewed: August 2020

Your responsibilities

• Collect only the personal information your organization needs to fulfill a legitimate identified purpose.
• Be honest about the reasons you are collecting personal information.
• Collect personal information by fair and lawful means. This requirement is intended to prevent organizations from collecting information by misleading or deceiving about the purpose.

How to fulfill these responsibilities

• Identify the kind of personal information you collect in your information-handling policies and practices.
• Limit the amount and type of information you collect to what is needed for the identified purposes.
• Ensure your staff can explain why your organization needs this information.

Tips

• By reducing the amount of information gathered, you can lower the cost of collecting, storing, retaining and ultimately archiving or disposing of data.
• Collecting less information also reduces the risk and/or impact of loss or inappropriate access, use or disclosure.