The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has launched a public consultation on emerging technologies, including online tracking, profiling and targeting of consumers by business. The deadline for written submissions is March 15th.
Privacy Commissioner Launches Public Consultation on Emerging Technologies
January 19, 2010
Share this post
One Comment

Law Bytes
Episode 260: What the Government Didn’t Want You To Hear About Bill C-4 And Its Weak Political Party Privacy Rules
byMichael Geist

March 2, 2026
Michael Geist
February 23, 2026
Michael Geist
February 9, 2026
Michael Geist
Episode 256: Jennifer Quaid on Taking On Big Tech With the Competition Act's Private Right of Access
February 2, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
Government Enacts Political Party Anti-Privacy Rules With Bill C-4 Royal Assent Sprint
A Tale of Two Bills: Lawful Access Returns With Changes to Warrantless Access But Dangerous Backdoor Surveillance Risks Remain
Words Are Not Enough: Countering Relentless Antisemitic Violence in Canada With Action
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 260: What the Government Didn’t Want You To Hear About Bill C-4 And Its Weak Political Party Privacy Rules
Why the Online Harms Act is the Wrong Way to Regulate AI Chatbots

A good idea, but…
I am not sure about just how much it will improve the privacy of Canadians online (with respect to cookies and social networking sites). For foreign companies, she can make recommendations; if the company is smart they will at the very least look at the recommendations to see if there are any that could be implemented without breaking legal obligations of their home countries.
A troubling issue is that more of these social networking sites are modifying their privacy policies, in particular with respect to sharing of data; the ones that I am familiar with have taken an opt-out approach so that you need to take action to increase your privacy settings with the change rather than reduce. Facebook did this recently, classmates.com has just announced a change as well.
Additionally, Symantec has changed the way that anti-virus protection renewals are done; if you’ve renewed online, they’ve kept your credit card info and have signed you up for automatic renewal (happened to me recently); you need to opt out of this setup rather than opt-in. Since I missed the first email on this the first I noticed was the email telling me that they charged my credit card $77.10 for the renewal. Good thing that email was still valid 🙂