Export Controls Alert: Canada’s Response to Liberalization of Controls on Ancillary Encryption

(John W. Boscariol, McCarthy Tétrault LLP)

Canadian controls over the export or transfer of goods, software and technology containing or designed to work with encryption continue to present challenges for Canadian companies. Export permits must be applied for and obtained in order to export information security items or transfer any related technology from Canada to destinations other than the United States.

Canada’s Export Control List identifies the goods and technology covered by these requirements and imposes a very low threshold of control – encryption with key lengths in excess of 64 bits (in the case of symmetric algorithms). Further, the available exemptions for mass market items and technology and software in the public domain may only be relied upon in very limited circumstances. Read more here.