I recently summarized the state of recent privacy class actions in Canada: the cases that are either pending or which were recently authorized. There has recently been an update in the Condon v. Canada case, which pertains to an action taken following the announcement in late 2012 that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada had lost an […] Read more
Many organizations remain very broad in their website privacy policies on the use made of the information collected. Recent bill S-4, the Digital Privacy Act, the federal government’s latest attempt to reform PIPEDA was proclaimed last month and proposes a revised “valid consent” provision (PIPEDA, s. 6.1), by shifting from a subjective standard to a more objective standard. To […] Read more
I posted a blog a few months ago about Health-tracking bracelets and privacy issues and raised the fact that health information collected by these self-tracking devices may be used as evidence in a litigation. Kashmir Hill published a piece today entitled “Fitbit data just undermined a woman’s rape claim“. Apparently, according to ABC 27, a woman handed the username and […] Read more
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced that airline company Porter Airlines Inc. agreed to pay $150,000 as part of an undertaking for alleged violations of Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL). It is reported that once made aware of the investigation by the CRTC, the airline company was cooperative and immediately took corrective actions to comply […] Read more
Douez launched a class-action lawsuit in Vancouver against Facebook for breach of privacy over their “Sponsored Stories” program which is now defunct. She was arguing that the program manipulated users for commercial gain and that it was violating Facebook users’ privacy by using their photos in commercial ads without their prior consent. In a decision issued today, the B.C. […] Read more
Bill S-4, the Digital Privacy Act, the federal government’s latest attempt to reform PIPEDA was proclaimed earlier today. I had testified on S-4 back in March, so for my thoughts on this Bill, please click here. You will find a summary of the Bill below: New breach notification requirement Notification and reporting was voluntarily effected based on […] Read more
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner recently issued a finding pertaining to Romania-based website Globe24h.com which is republishing Canadian court decisions, allowing them to be indexed by search engines, and demanding a fee for them to be removed. This website received a great deal of media attention in the last year. Apparently, 27 complaints were filed […] Read more
It was reported today that Twitter shut down a site that saved politicians’ deleted tweets. I also recently came across an interesting article entitled Your old emails are fair game for federal eyes. The article discusses the fact that in the U.S., under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, feds would be entitled to access 180-day old emails, texts and […] Read more
An article was published yesterday which pertains to Netflix testing ads surrounding its shows. An update was then posted beside the title of the article to specify: “only its own” to refer to the fact that Netflix would be testing ads to promote its own products and not enabling third party ads. This brings forward the issue […] Read more
Two privacy books have recently been released: Law, Privacy and Surveillance in Canada in the Post-Snowden Era This book was authored by Michael Geist. From the effectiveness of accountability and oversight programs to the legal issues raised by metadata collection to the privacy challenges surrounding new technologies, this book explores current issues torn from the headlines with […] Read more