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
One Comment
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 282: Udbhav Tiwari on Why Signal May Exit Canada Over Bill C-22’s Encryption and Metadata Retention Rules 
From Making Web Giants Pay to Paying Media Giants: Budget 2026 Replaces the Government’s Internet Platform Strategy With $1.5 Billion in Taxpayer Dollars for Culture and News 
Has the Government Read Its Own Bill? What Three Days of House Debate Revealed About Bill C-34 Before the Committee Hearings Begin 
Surveillance By Design: Government Officials Say Lawful Access Could Reach Gaming Platforms, Daycares and AI Services 
Canada’s First Digital Trade Agreement: Why the Canada-EU Deal Will Likely Follow Europe’s Template and What That Means for Canadian Digital Law
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 🙂