Grants and Contributions
About this information
In June 2016, as part of the Open Government Action Plan, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) committed to increasing the transparency and usefulness of grants and contribution data and subsequently launched the Guidelines on the Reporting of Grants and Contributions Awards, effective April 1, 2018.
The rules and principles governing government grants and contributions are outlined in the Treasury Board Policy on Transfer Payments. Transfer payments are transfers of money, goods, services or assets made from an appropriation to individuals, organizations or other levels of government, without the federal government directly receiving goods or services in return, but which may require the recipient to provide a report or other information subsequent to receiving payment. These expenditures are reported in the Public Accounts of Canada. The major types of transfer payments are grants, contributions and \'other transfer payments\'.
Included in this category, but not to be reported under proactive disclosure of awards, are (1) transfers to other levels of government such as Equalization payments as well as Canada Health and Social Transfer payments. (2) Grants and contributions reallocated or otherwise redistributed by the recipient to third parties; and (3) information that would normally be withheld under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.
$49,772.00
Aug 16, 2023
Mitigating Race, Gender and Privacy Impacts of AI Facial Recognition Technology
The increasing use of Artificial Intelligence Facial Recognition Technology (AI-FRT) in the private and public sectors has been plagued by issues of privacy as well as racial and gender bias, as the technology regularly misidentifies or fails to identify individuals of a particular gender or race. This research project seeks to examine and identify the race, gender and privacy issues related mainly to the development of AI-FRT by the private sector in Canada, and its use by both the private and public sectors in Canada. Other objectives of the research include to develop a framework and guidelines to address race, gender and privacy impacts arising from the development and deployment of AI-FRT by private sector developers in Canada; to identify possible reform of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) to legislatively address race, gender and privacy impacts arising from private sector development and deployment of AI-FRT; to collaborate with the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Center (ACLRC) to increase public understanding and awareness of race, gender and privacy impacts of AI-FRT through webinars, workshops and publication of research papers; and to strengthen research capacity in academia by training graduate students to research on race, gender and privacy issues related to AI-FRT.
$35,454.50
Aug 16, 2023
Privacy Analysis of VR/AR Online Shopping Applications
This project will investigate the ecosystem of virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) e-commerce, retail apps and websites, including virtual try-on, virtual makeup and beauty apps or websites, and the technological tools that are used by developers of these systems. The researchers will design and implement a privacy and security analysis framework to find and analyze these apps and websites as well as a selected set of their software development tools and libraries. The researchers will produce a public report summarizing the findings of their investigation and presenting recommendations for improving the security and privacy of VR/AR systems. The report will also include some easy-to-follow guidelines for Canadian shoppers who use these apps. The findings of this report will be provided online for free. The researchers will also produce a technical paper detailing their full methodology and results, as well as their technical recommendations.
$49,450.00
Aug 3, 2023
Making Privacy More than a Virtual Reality: The Challenges of Extending Canadian Privacy Law to Extended Reality
Extended reality (“XR”) technologies – which include augmented, mixed, and virtual reality – promise to revolutionize many aspects of our lives. Yet, the nature of these technologies’ data collection poses profound new implications for personal privacy. This project will begin with a survey of current XR technologies and anticipated developments to contextualize the privacy concerns surrounding XR hardware. Following the survey, the researchers will undertake a comprehensive study evaluating whether PIPEDA and the proposed CPPA are up to the task of protecting Canadians’ privacy in XR environments. The researchers will explore whether alternative approaches may be required to protect the privacy of Canadians in immersive environments, offering suggestions for Canadian privacy laws to address challenges posed by XR technologies.
$50,000.00
Jul 11, 2023
Large Language Models and the Disappearing Private Sphere
This project will examine possible futures for large language models (LLMs) and privacy in the private sector in the age of immersive and embeddable technologies. The project will produce a report, guidelines for institutional review boards (IRBs), and a public website to increase knowledge and understanding about the actual and potential future implications of LLMs and the collection of data used to train them. The project will also examine the differential effects of LLMs on the privacy of marginalized Canadians and members of minority language groups. The researchers will focus on five questions: 1. What is the de facto status of web scraping in Canada, according to IRBs? 2. How much data about individuals can be retrieved from LLMs? 3. Are marginalized groups and minority language groups more susceptible to privacy leakage from LLMs? 4. Are Canada’s privacy laws and regulations capable of dealing with these models and their privacy implications? 5. What changes to law and regulation might be needed?
$49,717.38
Jun 15, 2023
Identifying and Responding to Privacy Dark Patterns
This project aims to assess the ability of Canadian youth to identify and respond to privacy dark patterns on social media.
$47,370.00
Jun 15, 2023
Benchmarking Differential Privacy and Existing Anonymization or Deidentification Guidance
The objective of this project is to benchmark differential privacy against existing
guidance in order to better understand the opportunities to leverage this emerging
technique, and emerging technology on which it is based, its optimal use cases, and
creating a framework for best practices.
$39,600.00
Jun 13, 2023
Privacy and Human Rights Impact Assessment in Canadian AI Systems
This project will produce a comprehensive report identifying law and policy reform recommendations discussing the relationship between privacy and human rights in AI governance and regulation. The project will also make recommendations.
$50,000.00
Jun 12, 2023
Vertical “Just-in-Time" Privacy Policy Videos for Social Media Mobile Apps
This project will deliver four mobile-app-friendly videos to supplement a text-based social media privacy policy. A project report will also be submitted.
$49,758.00
May 31, 2023
In the Matrix - Consumer Privacy in the Metaverse
This project will characterize the different metaverse models available to Canadians, as well as those that may emerge over the next few years; analyze the privacy policies, user contracts and information content of a representative sample of three types of companies in the metaverse environment; and explore the applicable privacy laws.