Law / Canada / Prince Edward Island
Access to Digital Assets Act, a fiduciary's right of access against a custodian of digital assets
Access to Digital Assets Act, R.S.P.E.I. 1988, c. A-1.1, ss. 1, 3, 5 to 7
In force since .
A data subject rights rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Data subject rights, Contract terms
As of .
What it requires
- These duties bind a custodian, which is any person who holds, maintains, processes, receives or stores a digital asset of an account holder; the Act does not apply to an employer's digital asset that an employee uses in the ordinary course of the employer's business (ss. 1, 2(2)).
- Give a fiduciary of an account holder access to the account holder's digital asset within 30 days after receiving the fiduciary's written request and the original order or other document granting the fiduciary's authority, or a certified copy of it (s. 7).
- Treat the fiduciary as having the account holder's consent for you to divulge the content of the digital asset to the fiduciary (s. 5(1)(b)).
- Do not rely on a service-agreement provision that limits a fiduciary's access to a digital asset unless the account holder assented to it by an affirmative act separate from assenting to the other provisions of the service agreement; otherwise the provision is void and is unenforceable against the fiduciary (ss. 5(2), 6).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
What this law does
A custodian is a person who holds, maintains, processes, receives or stores a digital asset of an account holder. A digital asset is a record that is created, recorded, transmitted or stored in digital or other intangible form by electronic, magnetic or optical means or by other similar means. The Act does not apply to an employer's digital asset that is used by an employee in the ordinary course of the employer's business.
The fiduciary of an account holder has the right to access a digital asset of the account holder. That right is subject to a provision in the service agreement that limits a fiduciary's access, if the account holder assents to the provision on or after the date the Act comes into force and by an affirmative act separate from the account holder's assent to other provisions of the service agreement.
A fiduciary who has the right to access a digital asset is deemed to have the consent of the account holder for the custodian to divulge the content of the digital asset to the fiduciary. A provision in a service agreement is unenforceable against a fiduciary to the extent that it limits, contrary to the Act, the fiduciary's access to a digital asset.
A fiduciary with a right to access a digital asset may request access from the custodian in writing, including with the request the original order or other document granting authority to the fiduciary, or a certified copy of it. A custodian shall provide the fiduciary with access to the digital asset within 30 days after receipt of the request and the applicable document.
A custodian who complies with the Act, the regulations or any order of the court made under it is not liable for a loss arising from anything done or omitted, unless it was done or omitted in bad faith. The Table of Public Acts of Prince Edward Island lists the Act as proclaimed on . The Table also lists an amendment by chapter 11 of the Acts of 2023, effective , that repeals clauses 1(e)(v) and 2(1)(e).
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web, trains models, generates content with AI, deploys a chatbot, makes high-risk automated decisions, processes voice recordings, processes biometric data, operates a social platform, serves under-18s, operates an app store, ships a mobile app or reuses other publishers' content.