Title:
A Harm Reduction Approach to AI Safety in Canada: The Case of AI-Driven Privacy Harms
Agreement Value:
$44,275.00
Agreement Date:
May 21, 2026 - Mar 31, 2027
Description:
Artificial intelligence is generating urgent and serious privacy harms for Canadians. Generative AI platforms enable the mass production of non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated child sexual abuse material. Online gaming platforms — used by more than half of Canadians, including millions of children — collect vast quantities of personal and behavioural data with limited transparency or meaningful consent. And AI-powered chatbots and agentic AI systems are rapidly accumulating persistent “memory” profiles of users, retaining sensitive personal information across interactions in ways that most Canadians neither understand nor control. This project proposes a harm reduction approach as a practical and principled alternative.
Organization:
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Expected Results:
Expected project deliverables include a comprehensive harm reduction framework for AI-driven privacy harms in Canada, including a taxonomy of AI-driven privacy harms and an analytical framework for identifying and prioritizing urgent harms. Researchers will also produce three in-depth case study analyses (privacy harms in online gaming; generative AI and NCII; and AI agent/LLM memory), each including a harm characterization, legal analysis, and targeted harm reduction intervention recommendations. The project will also develop a policy brief with recommendations for policymakers and private sector organizations and a stakeholder workshop to bring together experts and other stakeholders.
Location:
North York, Ontario, CA M3J 1P3
Reference Number:
CP-000103
Agreement Type:
Contribution
Report Type:
Grants and Contributions
Recipient's Legal Name:
York University
Federal Riding Name:
Humber River--Black Creek (Ontario)
Program:
Contributions Program
Program Purpose:
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s (OPC) Contributions Program funds independent privacy research and related knowledge translation initiatives.