Privacy law expert David Fraser explains how Canadian laws allow U.S. boarder inspectors access to your sensitive health information.

Amanda Box and her boyfriend were looking forward to a relaxing weekend in his home in Colorado, instead they ended up shocked and humiliated at the U.S. Customs counter in Toronto’ Pearson International Airport.

The U.S. Customs agent at the counter denied Box entry to the states on the grounds that she was a “flight risks” because her computer records showed an entry for “mental health issues.”

Canadian privacy regulators are looking into the incident as well as the case of another Canadian woman denied entry into the U.S. also because of mental illness,, However, David Fraser, a privacy law expert and partner at the McInnes Cooper law firm in Atlantic Canada, said part of the problem may lie in the “incredibly wide latitude” that Canadian law enforcement agencies have in sharing sensitive personal information of Canadians with foreign authorities.

“The Privacy Commissioner of Canada pointed out this problem a decade ago, but it fell on deaf ears,” he wrote in his recent blog.

(By NestorArellano)