Gen(Z)AI | Forum Report: AI & Data Privacy

Résumé analytique

This report summarizes the third chapter of Gen(Z)AI's national process, held in Vancouver, British Columbia on February 20-22, 2026, focused on AI and data privacy. Gen(Z)AI is a first-of-its-kind youth assembly bringing together 100 young Canadians aged 17-23 from across the country to contribute directly to discussions on the future of AI governance in Canada, jointly organized by the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy and the Dialogue on Technology Project, in partnership with Mila, Quebec's AI Institute. The Vancouver forum was one of four regional forums, alongside sessions on chatbots, information integrity, and age assurance.

Participants described a digital ecosystem where data collection practices are often opaque and difficult to understand, and where consent regimes governing AI-enabled technologies, from chatbots to algorithmically curated social media feeds, are frequently complex, unclear, and difficult to meaningfully challenge, undermining informed consent and participants' ability to control how their personal information is collected, used, and shared. A 2025 study by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada found that 9 in 10 Canadians are concerned about their personal information being used to train AI systems, and AI tools ranked third among the most worrisome technologies for Canadians in terms of privacy. Participants identified two core issues: that the way AI systems collect and disclose user data is deliberately opaque, making informed consent difficult and disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly; and that AI systems are not subject to adequate, enforceable safeguards for the collection, storage, and sharing of user data, which may lead to unintended harms including excessive surveillance and profiling.

In response, participants developed policy recommendations falling into two broad categories: reactive policy mechanisms, which establish reporting pathways, remedies, and institutional responses when harm occurs; and design and system-level mechanisms, which embed safeguards and limits on deceptive or manipulative practices before harms occur. This was the third of four national Gen(Z)AI engagements, with the final forum in Halifax to focus on age assurance; a consolidated final report presenting policy recommendations from all four forums will be released following a hybrid reconvening in Ottawa on April 30, 2026.