The concern with foreign companies owning Canadian data is that they would be beholden to their respective countries’ laws, “allowing [the information] therefore to be moved to different countries,” said Jennifer Pybus, an assistant professor of political science and Canada Research Chair in data, democracy and AI at York University in Toronto.
“I think people are very concerned that most Canadian data is actually processed by American companies,” she added. “And so Canada wants to have this agency to have more autonomy and control over the data of Canadians here in Canada…