As the owner of a small business with international clients, I know that trust lies at the heart of my working relationships. Clients need to know that I can keep their business secrets confidential. International clients have historically had a high level of confidence doing business in Canada, but, sadly, our business climate is becoming increasingly toxic for privacy. It will be difficult for overseas clients to maintain that confidence if our government doesn’t change its tune.

I was fascinated by Edward Snowden’s revelations, and they have certainly sparked a lively debate. What I would like to add to that debate is some reflection on the impact our government’s “privacy deficit” has on Canadian businesses, particularly in a growing tech sector that employs over half-a-million Canadians.

We have a lot to celebrate in our tech sector, with pioneering Canadian companies like Hootsuite and Shopify boosting employment and making a global impact. Unfortunately, the federal government’s failure to address our privacy deficit undermines trust in our tech sector, and in the wider economy. This failure risks tilting the playing field away from Canadian businesses, and hindering innovation, job creation, and economic opportunity.

Let’s look at some of the ways that Canadian government policies and actions are creating a privacy deficit, a deficit that undermines trust and holds back Canadian businesses like mine.

Spying on trading partners: Each new revelation about the government’s spy agency, CSEC, leaves me scratching my head and worrying about the impact on business confidence. Why, for example, is the government spending tax dollars to spy on Brazil’s mining ministry, hugely damaging relations with a key trading partner in the process? And why are we spending over $4 billion to build and operate a lavish headquarters for CSEC, while the government’s failure to invest in basic economic infrastructure like high-speed broadband has left Canada missing targets and falling behind?

Data security: Post-Snowden, individuals and companies are considering where they store their data and who has access to it. The economic fallout of Snowden’s revelations on the U.S. tech sector has already been huge, with experts warning of $180 billion in lost revenue. Meanwhile, the E.U. and other countries are pushing ahead with plans to protect their data from government spying. Canada, with its weak privacy protections, reckless spy agency and troubling NSA connections, could be left on the wrong side of an increasingly splintered Internet.

Harmful spying legislation: Peter MacKay’s online spying legislation, Bill C-13, encourages Canadian companies to engage in warrantless disclosure of their customers’ private information. This is already happening on a massive scale, with victims neither consenting, nor being notified, when their information is handed to the government. This is all the more worrying given that over 725,000 Canadians have been affected by recent government failures to keep our data secure. Bill C-13 makes this problem worse, not better, and undermines Canadians’ trust in the providers they do business with. How can we expect overseas clients to trust Canadian firms with their private information given the risk of data exposure?

Putting U.S. copyright trolls ahead of Canadian businesses: As if C-13 wasn’t enough, Industry Minister James Moore is busy pushing Bill S-4, which would overwrite rules that protect Canadian businesses and their customers from the demands of U.S. copyright trolls. As a result of a recent court case, Canadians are largely protected from U.S.-style trolling. But under Bill S-4, U.S. copyright trolls could obtain Canadians’ private information from telecom providers on a massive scale. This undermines confidence in Canadian Internet businesses, and I find it baffling that the Industry Minister would push such economically harmful legislation.

Risky secret trade deals: The government recently hosted secret talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a huge trade deal that could force Canadian tech companies to act as “Internet police,” spying on their customers’ activities, blocking websites, and even disconnecting families from the Internet for allegations of copyright infringement. This would destroy trust, and place a grotesquely unfair financial burden on our tech sector. That’s why I recently joined with top global innovators to urge TPP ministers not to agree to these damaging proposals. I hope our Trade Minister Ed Fast is listening.

It’s past time for common sense to prevail and for the government to change its approach so that those beyond our borders can again trust Canadian businesses with their private data.

We at Agentic Digital Media have decided to speak out against our increasing privacy deficit, and have joined with other leading Canadian tech firms and organizations in the Protect our Privacy Coalition. You can learn more at OurPrivacy.ca.

Phillip Djwa is Agency Principal at Vancouver-based Agentic Digital Media. He is a certified Internet marketing specialist and strategist with 20 years experience in the high-tech industry. He is an active speaker on technology, digital media, and the future of work.