The Canadian Privacy Commissioner has issued her first decision involving spam. Although not yet publicly available, Professor Geist was the complainant and has posted the well-founded decision. The decision includes a determination that business email addresses constitute personal information and are not covered by the business information exception. It also concludes that the use of email addresses for secondary purposes (such as marketing) found on publicly available directories do not qualify under the publicly available exception found in the law. Finally, the decision confirmed the requirement to respect an opt-out request. UPDATE: There is coverage on the case today from the Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen.
Privacy Commissioner Issues First PIPEDA Spam Decision
December 6, 2004
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Law Bytes
Episode 236: Robert Diab on the Return of Lawful Access
byMichael Geist

May 5, 2025
Michael Geist
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The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 236: Robert Diab on the Return of Lawful Access