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Privacy Breaches Expose Flaws in the Law

My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the need for Canadian privacy reform in light of last week's security breaches involving CIBC and retailer giant Winners.  I note that these two incidents highlight the fragility of sensitive, personal information that is entrusted to Canadian businesses as well as the inadequacy of current Canadian privacy legislation.  Business groups have cautioned against privacy law reforms, yet as the risk of identity theft grows, the calls for change are likely to become more vocal. 

While the U.S. pushes forward with security breach disclosure legislation, Canadian business has argued strongly against similar reforms.  The Information Technology Association of Canada, which features representatives from companies such as BCE, Telus, Rogers, Microsoft, Nortel, and Research in Motion on its board of directors, warned against mandatory notification legislation in an appearance before a parliamentary committee last month.

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January 22, 2007 3 comments Columns

Debating DRM

Paid Content has a pair of interesting reports from the MidemNet conference in France including coverage of a DRM debate between representatives from the CEA, RIAA, and MPAA (the CEA response to RIAA's claim that it makes the recording industry look evil – "I don’t make you look evil – […]

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January 21, 2007 1 comment News

ICANN Launches Blog

ICANN has launched a blog, which it says is part of its effort to address criticism over its openness and transparency.

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January 21, 2007 1 comment News

It’s Not Just Music

It isn't only the music industry that enjoyed commercial success in Canada in 2006.  The video game industry – both hardware and software – enjoyed record sales with no signs that current Canadian copyright law somehow impedes that commercial success.

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January 19, 2007 1 comment News

Canadian Security Breaches

Lots of coverage today on two major Canadian security breaches – 470,000 Canadians hit by a CIBC security breach, while two million credit cards may have been captured in a hacking job against Winners, a clother retailer.

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January 18, 2007 Comments are Disabled News