The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) commissioned Phoenix Strategic Perspectives (Phoenix SPI) to conduct quantitative research with Canadian businesses on privacy‐related issues.
To address its information needs, the OPC conducts surveys with businesses every two years to inform and guide outreach efforts. The objectives of this research were to collect data on the type of privacy policies and practices businesses have in place; on businesses’ compliance with the law; and on businesses’ awareness and approaches to privacy protection. The findings will be used to help the OPC provide guidance to both individuals and organizations on privacy issues; and enhance its outreach efforts with small businesses, which can be an effective way to achieve positive change for privacy protection.
A 13‐minute telephone survey was administered to 1,003 companies across Canada between November 29 and December 19, 2019. The target respondents were senior decision makers with responsibility and
knowledge of their company’s privacy and security practices. Businesses were divided by size for sampling purposes: small (1 to 19 employees); medium (20 to 99 employees); and large (100 employees
or more). The results were weighted by size, sector and region using Statistics Canada data to ensure that they reflect the actual distribution of businesses in Canada. Based on a sample of this size, the results can be considered accurate to within ±3.1%, 19 times out of 20.