The Superior Court of Québec recently rendered a decision in Opencorporates Ltd. c Registraire des entreprises du Québec that, albeit limited in scope, raises important concerns with respect to the commercial use of publicly available information. The Court concluded that the Québec Enterprise Registrar (Registrar) did not have the legal authority to monitor and control the […] Read more
IAPP and EY published their fifth annual Privacy Governance Report (Report) last week. The authors of the Report surveyed companies across the globe to determine privacy governance trends. The Report aims to understand the structure of businesses’ privacy programs (e.g., budget, staffing, career development), measure privacy compliance efforts (this year, with a focus on compliance with […] Read more
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced on September 23, 2019 that it has concluded its consultation on transfers for processing of personal information, and that it will not be changing its guidance and requirements for such transfers under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). There are therefore no new obligations for organizations that engage in transfers […] Read more
(Picture of the BLG Montreal privacy team at IAPP Canadian Symposium 2019 – from left to right: François Joli-coeur, Max Jarvie, Elisa Henry, myself and Lauren Phizicky I am delighted that two additional BLG Privacy and Data Protection lawyers are ranked by Chambers 2020 as Privacy & Data Protection experts: Elisa Henry is partner and […] Read more
On August 12, 2019, the Canadian federal government announced CyberSecure Canada, a voluntary certification program to help small and medium enterprises (“SMEs”) achieve a baseline of cybersecurity. SMEs that demonstrate compliance with specified baseline cybersecurity controls, based on an audit by an accredited certification body, will be granted a two-year certification and be entitled to […] Read more
On August 6, 2019, we submitted an official response to the call for comments issued by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) in its “Consultation on transfers for processing – Reframed discussion” document dated June 11, 2019 (the “Consultation”). The revised Consultation reframed its original consultation on transborder dataflows dated April 9. […] Read more
Security incidents involving consumers’ personal information are increasingly being reported in the media. Consumers are worried about fraud or identity theft and companies that have suffered such incidents are often the subject of class actions, with more than 80 class actions involving privacy breaches currently in progress across the country. The Superior Court of Québec […] Read more
Small and medium organizations are increasingly being targeted by cyber criminals, but often have limited financial and human resources available to implement comprehensive cybersecurity measures. In March 2019, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security issued Baseline Cyber Security Controls for Small and Medium Organizations to help Canadian small and medium organizations get the most out […] Read more
I am delighted to have contributed to this great podcast dealing with marketing and privacy. In this podcast, Amber and Brent first interview Justin De Graaf, Head of Ads Research and Insights at Google, about how the tech giant makes its money and drives the global economy. They then interview me about whether a company […] Read more
Canadian privacy commissioners have emphasized the importance of the final step of a privacy breach response process — prevention and lessons learned. The recent decision by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Ari v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia confirms that an organization’s failure to learn from past privacy breaches and prevent future privacy […] Read more