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
Share this post

Law Bytes
Episode 278: Ben Waldman on Gander Social and the Challenges of Building a Sovereign Social Network
byMichael Geist

August 10, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
The Missing Charter Statement: Why Hasn’t the Government Explained How Bill C-34’s Social Media Ban Complies with the Charter?
Three Years After October 7th: Living With the Shockwaves
What If the U.S. Demanded This? The Cloud Provider Conditions Behind Canada’s EU Digital Pivot
Ontario is Done Waiting for Universities to Act on Campus Antisemitism
Is Compromise on Encryption Possible? Why Bill C-22’s “Minor Opening” Leaves the Central Question Unanswered
