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

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

Privacy

Government Reintroduces Identity Theft Bill

The Government has reintroduced legislation designed to address identity theft.  The bill appeared in the last Parliament but died on the order paper.  My original post on the last bill is here.  I was scheduled to appear before the Justice Committee to discuss the bill, but the the committee was […]

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April 1, 2009 1 comment News

FreeDominion.ca Appeals Anonymity Decision

The Kingston Whig-Standard reports that the owners of FreeDominion.ca have filed an appeal against the recent ruling ordering them to identify anonymous posters.

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March 31, 2009 4 comments News

Canadian MP Seeks Hearings on Google Street View

The Ottawa Citizen reports that Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre is putting forward a motion to the Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee for hearings into Google Street View.

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March 30, 2009 6 comments News

Ontario Court Orders Website To Disclose Identity of Anonymous Posters

An Ontario court has ordered the owners of the FreeDominion.ca to disclose all personal information on eight anonymous posters to the chat site.  The required information includes email and IP addresses.  The case arises from a lawsuit launched by Richard Warman, the anti-hate fighter, against the site and the posters.  The court focused heavily on the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure, which contain a strong duty of disclosure on litigants. 

The discussion includes a review of many key Internet privacy cases, including the CRIA file sharing litigation (which the court distinguishes on the basis of different court rules) and the Irwin Toy case (which emphasized the importance of protecting anonymity, but which the court tries to distinguish on the basis of the newness of the issue at the time).  The court also looks at the string of recent cases involving child pornography cases and ISP disclosure of customer information, concluding that "the court's most recent pronouncement on this is that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy."

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March 25, 2009 58 comments News

RCMP Seeks Backdoor Wiretap Access to Blackberry Messaging

CBC reports this evening that the RCMP is seeking backdoor wiretap access to Blackberry devices.  The law enforcement agency is concerned that email messaging with the Blackberry is secure and encrypted which raises fears that it is widely used by criminal elements.  Liberal MP Marlene Jennings touts her lawful access […]

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March 24, 2009 12 comments News