Accreditation Requirements
Accreditation involves a simple three step process:
- Simply choose the highest particular accreditation designation for which your experience and professional development points allow you to qualify.
- Prepare for your test by reviewing the materials identified as testable for that accreditation.
- When you are ready to challenge the test, simply submit the accreditation application and payment.
If you score 70% or better on the test, then you earn the related accreditation designation.
Our tests are objective and cover the common body of legal rules governing Canadian privacy compliance in the private sector. Those rules and your obligations pursuant to them are available in publicly available documents that form the reading materials upon which you will be tested.
The fee for each accreditation test is $75.00 plus GST.
More detail:
1. Simply choose the highest particular accreditation designation for which your experience and professional development points allow you to qualify. Use the chart below:
| Designation: | Registered PO | Certified PO | Licensed PO | Chartered PO |
| Experience based on number of people in organization and length of service. | ||||
| # of People | Length of Service Required | |||
| 1 - 10 | > 1 day | 9 months | 18 months | 36 months |
| 11 - 100 | > 1 day | 8 months | 15 months | 30 months |
| > 100 | > 1 day | 7 months | 12 months | 24 months |
| Professional Development Points Required | ||||
| Initially | 0 points | 25 points | 50 points | 100 points |
| Bi-annual Renewal | 25 points | 50 points | 100 points | 200 points |
2. Prepare for your test by reviewing the materials identified as testable for that accreditation.
- To view the testable materials for each accreditation designation click here
3. When you are ready to challenge the test, simply submit the accreditation application and payment.
- If the test is available online, we will send you instructions for taking the test online.
- If the test is available offline, we will send the test to the person you have identified on your application as your invigilator.
- For the Accreditation Application Form, click here
4. If you score 70% or better on the test, then you earn the related accreditation designation.
Privacy Officer Experience
People in Organization: This refers to the number of employees or contract workers for whom you are responsible for privacy compliance for your organization.
Duration: This refers to the length of time you have been responsible for privacy compliance for an organization with the identified number of people for whom you are responsible for privacy compliance.
To return to Accreditation Requirements click here
For the Accreditation Application Form, click here
Professional Development (PD) Points
| Professional Development (PD) within previous 2 years |
PD Points (Your PD points must come from more than one category) (Unless otherwise shown, your maximum biannual PD points from each activity are two times the points shown below) |
| COURSE PARTICIPATION | |
| CPOI Course | As shown for particular course |
| Other courses depending upon CPOI evaluation of course materials and/or your summary notes submitted by you with evaluation fee. |
Points dependent upon CPOI evaluation of submitted materials (usually approximately 6 points per half day of course) |
| COURSE DEVELOPMENT | |
| Initial development or presentation of a course approved by CPOI | 20 points per half day of development or delivery to 60 points annual maximum |
| Initial development and presentation of a course approved by CPOI | 30 points per half day of development and delivery to 90 points annual maximum |
| PRIVACY ORGANIZATION PARTICIPATION | |
| Acting on CPOI or other privacy industry organization committee | 2 points per hour of acting to 50 point annual maximum |
| Grading of written answer portion of CPOI tests | 2 points per hour of grading to 50 point annual maximum |
| CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION | |
| CPOI Conference | As shown for particular conference |
| Other conferences depending upon CPOI evaluation of course materials and/or your summary notes submitted by you |
Points dependent upon CPOI evaluation of submitted materials (usually approximately 6 points per half day of course) |
| PUBLIC SPEAKING | |
| Conference featured speaker | 40 points |
| Conference panel speaker | 25 points |
| Local meeting featured speaker (ex. Chamber of Commerce, Rotary) | 30 points |
| COMMUNITY SERVICE | (If you are a community group's privacy officer your service may be used for your Experience points. Your community service work can not be used for both Experience and PD points) |
| Acting as, or advising, privacy officer of community, charitable or non-profit organization | 2 points per hour to 40 point annual maximum |
| AUTHORSHIP | |
| Writing a within organization report | 2 points per hour to maximum of 20 points per report with a maximum of 60 points per year |
| Writing a sufficiently detailed case study fact situation and proposed solution for publication on the CPOI web site. These are intended to be helpful to other privacy officers. | 20 points |
| Writing an unpublished relevant research paper (ex. thesis or practicum) | 30 points |
| Writing relevant book report published in CPOI recognized publication | 10 points |
| Writing relevant unresearched article published in CPOI recognized publication | 25 points |
| Writing relevant researched article published in CPOI recognized publication | 40 points |
| Writing relevant chapter of book published by CPOI recognized third party or purchased by more than 100 third parties | 40 points |
| Writing or co-writing relevant multi-chapter book published by CPOI recognized third party or purchased by more than 100 third parties | 2 points per hour to 70 point annual maximum and 140 point 2 year maximum |
| OTHER | |
| Send us a description of experience you think should be considered relevant. If our assessment committee agrees, we will add it. | Points dependent upon CPOI evaluation of submission |
| Your Total PD Points: |
To return to Accreditation Requirements click here
For the Accreditation Application Form, click here
Testable Materials
Registered Privacy Officer Test:
Time 30 minutes
Test Eligible Materials:
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act available here: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/legislation/02_06_01_e.asp
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's Your Privacy Responsibilities: A Guide for Businesses and Organizations available here: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/information/guide_e.asp
For the Accreditation Application Form, click here
Certified Privacy Officer Test:
Time: 60 minutes
Test Eligible Materials:
Everything eligible for the Registered Privacy Officer Test plus:
Regulations available here : http://www.privcom.gc.ca/legislation/02_06_01_02_e.asp
Fact Sheets published by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada available here http://www.privcom.gc.ca/fs-fi/index_e.asp
For the Accreditation Application Form, click here
Licensed Privacy Officer Test:
Time: 90 minutes
Test Eligible Materials:
Everything eligible for the Certified Privacy Officer Test plus:
Alberta PIPA private sector privacy legislation available here: http://www.oipc.ab.ca/pipa/
British Columbia PIPA private sector legislation available here: http://www.mser.gov.bc.ca/privacyaccess/Privacy/
Questions and Answers regarding the application of PIPEDA, Alberta and British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Acts (PIPAs) available here
For the Accreditation Application Form, click here
Chartered Privacy Officer Test:
Time: 2 hours.
Test Eligible Materials:
Everything eligible for the Registered Privacy Officer Test plus:
Decisions by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (A concise and handy compendium of these decision summaries indexing concise compendia of each summary under the relevant statutory provision is available in our Order of Privacy Officers Compendium. For a sample excerpt click here). Alternatively you may read the more than 300 decision summaries in their entirety here: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/cf-dc/2005/index2-5_e.asp
Decisions of the Federal Court of Canada applying PIPEDA are available by going to the federal court of Canada web site here and doing a search for "personal information protection and electronic documents act".
Investigation Reports applying Alberta PIPA private sector privacy legislation available here: http://www.oipc.ab.ca/pipa/
Decisions relating to the application of British Columbia's PIPA which can be found on the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner's website here: http://www.oipc.bc.ca/sector_private/orders_decisions/index.htm
To return to Accreditation Requirements click here
For the Accreditation Application Form, click here