Young Canadians Are Ready for Privacy Reform. Is Parliament?

UBC students partnered with OpenMedia to find out how young Canadians feel about their digital privacy rights. The answer? They care deeply but feel powerless. With Bill C-36 just introduced in Parliament, will Canada finally get the privacy law reform people deserve?

Earlier this year, OpenMedia partnered with students from University of British Columbia (UBC) to find out what do young Canadians think about their digital privacy rights. What they discovered is both encouraging and sobering: young people care about privacy far more than the "nothing to hide" stereotype suggests. But they also feel deeply ill-equipped to do anything about it, and increasingly skeptical that the system will give them any protections.

The UBC team began with a deceptively simple question: What privacy rights do we have in Canada to see, edit, or delete the data giant online platforms we use hold on us? Over five days in March 2026, they conducted a survey of 78 Canadian youth, primarily UBC students. They also launched four short-form videos across OpenMedia’s social media platforms to explain core privacy concerns Canadians face. Their central topic was the enforcement gap in Canadian privacy law, where the Privacy Commissioner lacks the authority to issue binding orders or place meaningful fines against companies that violate your rights.

The findings

Young people care about privacy, but feel shut out. A full 93.6% of respondents said data privacy is important to them, and 58.9% already believe their rights are being violated online. The problem isn't apathy. It's that only 3.8% feel confident in their understanding of Canadian privacy legislation. That gap between caring deeply and feeling equipped to act is real. Young people are ready to engage. They just need the right tools to do it. 

76.9% of survey respondents use short-form social media as their primary source of media. The four videos tested distinct formats: a legislative explainer, an emotional case study, on-campus street interviews, and a comedic sketch. The goal wasn't just to raise awareness, but to understand which kind of content actually moves young people. The experiment revealed that when it comes to privacy content specifically, young Canadians respond best to videos that commit fully to either informing or entertaining.

Privacy law is genuinely complex, and that complexity demands intentional, context-specific communication: content that meets young people where they are and translates dry legislative reality into something that feels urgent and personally relevant. When given the right entry point, young Canadians are ready to show up for privacy reform.

• You can find the detailed report here.

Why does this matter right now?

These findings couldn't be more timely. The federal government just introduced Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act (PPCDA), which would recognize privacy as a fundamental right, strengthen consent and right to delete, and introduce a “digital super-regulator” with significant penalty powers.

The privacy law reform is long overdue, but the shape of this reform raises questions. Most alarmingly, Bill C-36 would strip the Privacy Commissioner of Canada of authority over private-sector privacy law, and hand that responsibility to a newly created Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission. This is the same five-member commission created just days earlier to police online harms. This consolidation is unprecedented among Canada's democratic allies, and represents a serious downgrade in the independence of privacy enforcement.

In the UBC student’s study, they found the absence of real consequences for companies that violate privacy rights as the underlying structural problem. Parts of Bill C-36 attempts to close that gap, tightening privacy rights on paper; but by moving enforcement away from the Privacy Commissioner, an independent agent of Parliament, and toward a Cabinet-appointed commission with multiple competing objectives, rights that are stronger on paper risk being enforced by a distracted regulator with many other priorities.

What Comes Next

Canada's new privacy law should strengthen independent enforcement, give Canadians real control over their data, and hold powerful companies accountable. Join us in calling for people-first privacy reform. Add your voice at openmedia.org/Privacy4Canadians.

And if you believe in independent advocacy that answers to people, not corporations: OpenMedia is 100% funded by people like you. No big tech money. No government funding. Just a community of people who think the internet should be open, affordable, and surveillance-free. If this work matters to you, please consider supporting it at openmedia.org/donate.