Stay compliant. Protect what you’ve built.
Regulatory tracking
Laws change, and most owners don't have time to keep up. Look for a partner who monitors what applies to you and turns it into a clear plan.
Real governance
Policies only protect you if they're actually built and maintained. Look for a partner who puts the framework in place, not just advice.
Breach readiness
The clock starts the moment a breach happens. Look for a partner with a custom-built response plan in place before you need it.
Audit-ready proof
Being compliant isn't enough if you can't prove it. Look for a partner who keeps your documentation clear and current, so it's always ready to show an auditor.
How we help
Compliance solutions built for your regulations and standards
Lean and Fast
Steady and Growing
Efficient and Expanding
Compliance
Which regulations apply to your business?
Compliance isn't one-size-fits-all. What applies to you depends on your industry, your province, and how you handle data. These three frameworks cover most businesses as a starting point in 2026.
PIPEDA
Applies to any business handling personal information in the course of commercial activity
Requires clear consent before collecting, using, or sharing personal data
Requires safeguards that match the sensitivity of the information
Requires reporting breaches with a real risk of significant harm
PCI DSS
Applies to any business that stores, processes, or transmits credit card data
Requires encryption of cardholder data, in transit and at rest
Requires regular vulnerability scans and access reviews
Requires cardholder data to be restricted on a need-to-know basis
Law 25
Applies to any business operating in Quebec that handles personal information
Requires a designated Privacy Officer
Requires privacy impact assessments for new projects and cross-border data transfers
Requires breach reporting to the CAI and affected individuals
Compliance advice
Compliance That Scales With Your Business
A plan built around your exact regulatory needs
Every business faces different risks, growth challenges, and regulatory pressures. Our approach aligns compliance to your stage of growth, helping you reduce risk, stay ahead of regulations, and support business objectives while adding the clarity you deserve.
Colorado CPA
Colorado Revised Statutes § 6-1-112
Context
Colorado's consumer privacy law, similar in spirit to Virginia's but enforced through Colorado's broader consumer protection statute. It applies to businesses meeting Colorado's data volume thresholds.
Penalties
Violations are treated as deceptive trade practices under Colorado's Consumer Protection Act and can run up to $20,000 per violation, among the highest per-violation penalties of any US state privacy law.
Benefits
Meeting Colorado's requirements, including its strict rules on honoring "do not track" signals, sets you up for the same expectation wherever else it appears, since more states are heading this direction.
Virginia CDPA (VCDPA)
Code of Virginia § 59.1-584
Context
Virginia's consumer data protection law, the second comprehensive privacy law in the US and the template many other states copied. It applies to businesses processing a meaningful volume of Virginia residents' personal data.
Penalties
The Virginia Attorney General can pursue civil penalties up to $7,500 per violation, following a mandatory 30-day cure period. There is no private right of action for core violations; only the Attorney General can enforce it.
Benefits
Virginia's rights-based model (access, correction, deletion, opt-out) is close enough to several other states' laws that meeting it here does a lot of the work for those too.
CCPA / CPRA (California)
PrivacyLawMap, citing Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.155
Context
California's consumer privacy law, the first of its kind in the US and the model most other state laws borrowed from. It applies to businesses meeting a revenue or data volume threshold that handle California residents' personal information, regardless of where the business itself is located.
Penalties
Statutory fines run $2,500 per unintentional violation and $7,500 per intentional violation, adjusted for inflation every two years (roughly $2,663 and $7,988 as of 2026).
Benefits
If you plan to serve California customers, getting ahead of this now avoids a scramble later, since its consumer rights model carries over to several other state laws too.
BC PIPA (British Columbia)
Clym, BC PIPA overview · Recording Law, BC PIPA s.56
Context
BC's version of the same idea, a private sector privacy law that applies instead of PIPEDA for organizations operating within the province, covering both for-profit and non-profit organisations.
Penalties
Penalties reach $10,000 for an individual and $100,000 for an organization.
Benefits
A BC PIPA-compliant program is largely interchangeable with what PIPEDA and Alberta's PIPA already require, so it's rarely extra work if you're already covering the basics elsewhere.
Alberta PIPA
Alberta.ca, Organization responsibilities for protecting personal information
Context
Alberta's own private-sector privacy law, doing the job PIPEDA does everywhere else in Canada. It applies to any organization handling personal information within the province.
Penalties
Fines can reach $10,000 for an individual and $100,000 for an organization for a deliberate violation.
Benefits
Alberta PIPA compliance overlaps heavily with PIPEDA, so the work here strengthens your privacy program everywhere else in Canada too.
Law 25 (Quebec)
Légis Québec, Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector · McCarthy Tétrault on Law 25 penalties
Context
Quebec's privacy law, widely considered the strictest in Canada and one of the closest to Europe's GDPR. It applies to any business handling the personal information of Quebec residents, even if the company itself is based elsewhere.
Penalties
Administrative penalties reach $50,000 for an individual and up to $10 million or 2% of worldwide turnover, whichever is greater, for an organization. Penalty fines run $5,000 to $100,000 for an individual and $15,000 up to $25 million or 4% of worldwide turnover, whichever is greater, for an organization.
Benefits
Getting ahead of Law 25 positions you for wherever Canadian privacy law is heading next, since other jurisdictions are moving toward similar standards. It also signals real credibility to Quebec customers specifically.
PIPEDA (Canada, Federal)
Justice Laws Canada, PIPEDA s.28 · Miller Thomson on Bill C-36
Context
Canada's baseline federal privacy law, governing how private businesses collect, use, and disclose personal information in the course of commercial activity. It applies to any business without a provincial law of its own, and it still governs federally regulated industries and cross-border data everywhere in Canada.
Penalties
Under the current Act, fines reach $10,000 for a summary offence and $100,000 for an indictable one, and only for specific violations like failing to report a breach. A bill introduced in June 2026 proposes penalties up to $10 million or 3% of global revenue for standard violations, and up to $25 million or 5% for the most serious ones. This isn't law yet, but it shows where things are headed.
Benefits
A well-documented PIPEDA program satisfies most of Canada's other privacy laws with only minor additions. It's also the baseline customers and partners expect, so being compliant here builds trust before it's ever tested.
Financial Penalties
Fines scale with revenue, not company size, so smaller businesses can feel them just as hard as large ones. Under Quebec's Law 25 alone, penalties can reach $25 million or 4% of global revenue, whichever is greater.
Reputational Damage
41% of Canadians say they've stopped doing business with a company after a privacy breach. Once that trust is gone, it rarely comes back on its own.
Customer Data at Risk
A breach doesn't just cost money to fix. It costs the average Canadian organization $6.98 million to recover from, and once personal data is exposed, there's no putting it back.
Supplier & Partner Relations
More vendors and partners now require proof of compliance before they'll sign or renew a contract. Falling behind doesn't just cost you customers, it can cost you the partnerships that keep your business running.
FAQs
Things you're probably wondering
What compliance laws do I have to follow?
The compliance requirements your business must follow depend on where you operate, your industry and the type of data you handle. Canadian businesses may need to consider federal and provincial privacy requirements alongside industry-specific standards and frameworks such as PCI DSS, SOC 2 and ISO 27001. FENCECORE can assess your IT environment and help identify the security controls and technology requirements relevant to your organization.
What are the penalties for not being compliant?
Non-compliance can lead to financial penalties, legal consequences, failed audits and increased exposure to data breaches, depending on the regulation involved. It can also create commercial consequences, such as difficulty meeting customer or cyber-insurance requirements. Maintaining supported technology, protecting sensitive information and regularly assessing your security posture can help reduce these risks.
How do I ensure I'm compliant?
Compliance starts with understanding which requirements apply to your business and assessing your current IT environment against them. This typically includes: reviewing how data is stored and accessed, identifying vulnerabilities, maintaining supported systems, implementing security controls and documenting policies and processes. FENCECORE's cybersecurity assessments evaluate networks, endpoints, cloud environments and sensitive-data exposure, then provide a prioritized remediation roadmap.
How can an IT partner help with compliance?
Look for an IT and cybersecurity partner that understands both regulatory requirements and the technology needed to support them. FENCECORE provides cybersecurity risk assessments, compliance evaluations and managed security services to help businesses identify gaps, implement appropriate controls and maintain a stronger security posture over time.
Do compliance and cybersecurity have anything in common?
Yes. Cybersecurity and compliance are closely connected, but they are not the same thing. Compliance defines requirements your organization needs to meet, while cybersecurity encompasses the people, processes and technology used to protect systems and data. Controls such as MFA, encryption, patch management, access management, backups and threat monitoring can therefore support both cybersecurity and compliance objectives.
Step 1
Gap analysis
We review your current policies, processes, and controls against industry standards like ISO 27001, GDPR, and Cyber Essentials to identify where you stand.
Step 2
Roadmap and prioritise
We map out a clear, prioritised action plan to close compliance gaps - balancing regulatory deadlines with what's practical for your team and budget.
Step 3
Implement and document
We help you put the right policies, controls, and evidence in place - from access management and data handling to incident response procedures.
Step 4
Certify and maintain
Once you're audit-ready, we support you through certification and provide ongoing monitoring to keep you compliant as regulations evolve.
Talk to our team
Ready to take the next step? Tell us a little about yourself and your business, and our team will be in touch to understand what you need, answer your questions, and explore how we can help.
