Privacy & Security Consulting in Vancouver

Vancouver's private-sector organizations are primarily governed by British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), enforced by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia. PIPA applies to most commercial activity in the province in place of PIPEDA, and it creates real obligations around consent, collection limitation, vendor management, and individual access rights. PIPEDA continues to apply to federally regulated businesses — banks, telecoms, airlines — regardless of where they are based, and it governs personal information that crosses provincial or national borders. For a city with significant cross-border commercial activity, technology companies that sell nationally and internationally, and a substantial financial services sector, the boundary between provincial and federal jurisdiction is not academic — it is a design question that affects how every privacy program needs to be built.

Vancouver's technology sector has grown substantially and now includes some of Canada's most sophisticated software, fintech, and digital health companies. Privacy governance has become a commercial requirement in that market: enterprise customers in the US and across Canada run structured vendor assessments, and the absence of a documented privacy program is increasingly a reason deals do not close. Privacy Horizon works with Vancouver-based organizations to build programs that satisfy PIPA's substantive requirements, account for PIPEDA where it applies, and hold up to the scrutiny that their customers and partners apply.

The work looks different depending on the organization. For early-stage technology companies, it might begin with privacy and security coaching and a foundational policy framework. For mid-market businesses facing their first enterprise customer assessment, it might mean a rapid gap analysis followed by targeted policy development and a Virtual Privacy Officer arrangement. For companies navigating acquisitions, our M&A due diligence work brings data risk into the deal process before it becomes a post-close problem. Virtual CISO services address the security governance dimension that sits alongside privacy obligations for technology companies managing sensitive data. Custom training builds the organizational understanding that makes compliance durable as teams and products evolve.