The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is coming into force in less than two months, on January 1, 2020. The CCPA has an extraterritorial scope, which means that certain Canadian organizations may be covered by the statute. In order to comply with the law, these organizations will need to observe new transparency requirements (such as by adding […] 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
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
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
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, commenting on the House of Commons TRAN report on automated vehicles in May of 2018, likened autonomous vehicles (“AV”) to “smartphones on wheels”. While apt, the comparison is a significant understatement. The volume of information generated by the daily activities of even the most enthusiastic user of smartphone technology pales in comparison […] Read more
On April 23, 2019, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued Compliance and Enforcement Decision 2019-111, imposing an administrative penalty of $100,000 on Brian Conley — the President and Chief Executive Officer of nCrowd — for infringing consent and unsubscribe requirements under Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Read more
In a significant departure from its guidelines and decisions under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada introduced in an April 9, 2019 decision a requirement for an organization to obtain consent for outsourcing activities involving personal information to a service provider outside of Canada. In light of this significant change […] Read more