OTTAWA—The percentage of Canadian businesses collecting their customers’ personal information has sharply increased over the last seven years, a new survey for Ottawa’s privacy watchdog reveals.

A total of 97 per cent of companies surveyed in 2013 said they collect their customers’ personal information, including name, address, and telephone numbers — up from 63 per cent in 2007.

But while the number of companies collecting Canadians’ personal data is increasing, the number concerned about losing that data seems to be on the wane.

Half of the businesses surveyed said they were “not at all” concerned about data breaches in 2013 — while only a year earlier 40 per cent indicated some concern about such breaches.

“Over time, Canadian businesses have become modestly less concerned about a data breach,” the report states.

“Fifty eight (per cent) of surveyed companies do not have guidelines in place in the event of a breach where the personal information of their customers is compromised.”

The increase in the collection of personal data comes at a time when the federal Conservatives are pushing two pieces of legislation that alter the rules around how private companies can share their customers’ personal information.

Bill C-13, the so-called cyberbullying bill working its way through the House of Commons, gives companies civil and criminal immunity should they voluntarily disclose their customers’ data to authorities.

Bill S-4, dubbed the Digital Privacy Act and currently before the Senate, allows private companies to voluntarily share that information with other companies.

Taken together, privacy advocates are concerned that the two bills could drastically increase the amount of Canadians’ personal information turned over to law enforcement, government agencies, and the private sector without a warrant.

Requests for that information are already being made at what experts call a staggering rate. Former Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier revealed in April that nine telecom, Internet and social media companies were asked almost 1.2 million times in 2011 to voluntarily turn over customers’ data — often without a warrant or judicial oversight.

Only four per cent of companies surveyed in 2013 said they received requests from authorities to disclose personal information without a warrant. But of those, approximately half simply turned over the information requested, with an additional 13 per cent saying they provided the information “some of the time.”

It’s not clear that the survey included telecommunications companies and Internet service providers, which are thought to receive the lion’s share of law enforcement requests.

Ottawa’s new privacy commissioner, Daniel Therrien, was not available for an interview Monday. He is scheduled Tuesday to testify before a Commons committee studying Bill C-13.

In an emailed response, Therrien’s office noted that most companies surveyed attached a strong significance to the importance of protecting customers’ information. But the privacy watchdog is concerned about a “lack of concrete actions” from businesses to ensure their customers’ privacy.

“The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is definitely concerned that a decade after private sector privacy laws came into force, many Canadian businesses are still not taking some basic steps to protect the personal information of their customers and clients,” wrote spokeswoman Valerie Lawton.

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“For example, more than half of the businesses surveyed (55 per cent) don’t even have a privacy policy. Meanwhile, 67 per cent have no policies or procedures in place for assessing the privacy risks of new products, services or technologies. This represents a serious gap in basic privacy protection.”

The survey, conducted in November 2013 by Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc., interviewed 1,006 companies across Canada. The results are considered accurate within or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.