Post Tagged with: "pipeda"

Anti Doping by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/5ZWsUT

Government’s Expansion of PIPEDA in Budget Bill Raises Constitutional Questions

The government’s omnibus budget implementation bill (Bill C-59) has attracted attention for its inclusion of copyright term extension for sound recordings and the retroactive changes to the Access to Information Act. Another legislative reform buried within the bill is a significant change to PIPEDA, Canada’s private sector privacy law. The bill adds a new Schedule 4 to PIPEDA, which allows the government to specify organizations in the schedule to which PIPEDA applies. Bill C-59 immediately adds one organization: the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which is based in Montreal.

The change to PIPEDA is designed to address European criticism that WADA is not subject to privacy laws that meet the adequacy standard under EU law. WADA is currently subject to Quebec’s private sector privacy law, which meets the “substantial similarity” standard under Canadian law, but has not received an adequacy finding from Europe. In June 2014, the EU Working Party that examines these issues released an opinion that raised several concerns with the provincial law. The goal of the criticism appears to be to deem Montreal unfit to host WADA and transfer its offices to Europe. The Canadian government wants to stop the privacy criticisms by deeming PIPEDA applicable to WADA. Since PIPEDA has received an adequacy finding, presumably the hope is that the legislative change will address the European concerns.

May 27, 2015 — 1 comment — News

back to drawing board by Michael Kötter (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dqQzTn

Back to the Drawing Board: Bell Drops Opt-Out Targeted Ad Program

Days after the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released its decision that found that Bell was violating Canadian privacy law with its targeted ad program, the communications giant advised that it is withdrawing its program and deleting all customer profiles. A company spokesperson stated yesterday that Bell plans to re-introduce the program using an opt-in consent approach. That would likely require more than just a change to the privacy policy since the company would need to provide customers with incentives or compensation to get much acceptance to be voluntarily tracked.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that Bell’s targeted advertising program, which creates customer profiles that include age, gender, account location, credit score, pricing plan, and average revenue per user, generated controversy from the moment it was announced in October 2013. The communications giant maintained that it complied with Canadian privacy laws, yet many clearly disagreed as the Privacy Commissioner of Canada received an unprecedented barrage of complaints.

April 14, 2015 — 2 comments — Columns

The Bell Telephone Company of Canada Building by Billy Wilson (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/9ESABT

Privacy Commissioner of Canada Rules Bell’s Targeted Ad Program Violates Canadian Law

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has released the long-awaited decision on Bell’s targeted ads program. The Commissioner’s press release soft-pedals the outcome – “Bell advertising program raises privacy concerns” – but the decision is clear: Bell’s so-called relevant ads program violates Canadian privacy law. As I wrote earlier this year, the key issue in the case centered on whether Bell should be permitted to use an opt-out consent mechanism in which its millions of customers are all included in targeted advertising unless they take pro-active steps to opt-out, or if an opt-in consent model is more appropriate. Given the detailed information collected and used by Bell, I argued that opt-in consent was the right approach.

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada agrees:

In our view, for the reasons expressed above, the RAP clearly involves the use of sensitive personal information. As such, the sensitivity of the information at issue leads us to the conclusion that Bell must obtain express consent for the RAP in the circumstances. This conclusion is further supported by our assessment of the reasonable expectations of Bell Customers, which is set out below.

April 7, 2015 — 10 comments — News

Wiertz Sebastien - Privacy by Sebastien Wiertz (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/ahk6nh

Fixing the Digital Privacy Act: My Bill S-4 Appearance Before the Industry Committee

Yesterday I appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology to discuss Bill S-4, the Digital Privacy Act. The discussion focused on a wide range of concerns, including the shortcomings in the security breach disclosure rules and the need for greater enforcement powers for the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Metro News covered the appearance. My opening remarks are posted below. I’ll link to the full transcript once available.

March 11, 2015 — Comments are Disabled — Committees, News

Privacy is not a Crime by Jürgen Telkmann (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/pDmshR

Why Watching the Watchers Isn’t Enough: My Talk on Privacy, Snowden & Bill C-51

Last month, I had the honour of speaking at the Pathways to Privacy Symposium, a privacy event sponsored by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and hosted by the University of Ottawa. The event featured many excellent presentations (the full seven hours can be viewed here). My talk focused on the recent emphasis on the need to improve oversight, a common refrain in reaction to both the Snowden surveillance revelations and Bill C-51, the anti-terrorism bill. While better oversight is necessary, I argue that it is not sufficient to address the legal shortcomings found in both Canada’s surveillance legislation and Bill C-51. The full talk (which unfortunately has slightly delayed sound) can be viewed here or below.