The Canadian Trademark Blog notes that after years of consultations and discussion, CIRA has finally committed to a date for implementing its revised WHOIS policy. As of June 10, 2008, CIRA will no longer release information about individual registrants. Registrants can still opt-in to having their information posted to the […]

Wiertz Sebastien - Privacy by Sebastien Wiertz (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/ahk6nh
Privacy
Privacy Commissioner on How to Fix the Privacy Act
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada's blog features a top ten list of reforms to the Privacy Act.
B.C. Unveils E-Health Privacy Bill
British Columbia has become the first province in Canada to create a specific legislative framework governing access and privacy for electronic health information databases.
CMA Responds to iOptOut Column
The Canadian Marketing Association responds to this week's column on the iOptOut service with a letter to the editor professing its support for the national do-not-call list (though notably not for the public's right to opt-out without first receiving a phone call). Update: The CMA's John Gustavson responds to an […]
CMA and MRIA Recommend Against Respecting iOptOut Requests
My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, Ottawa Citizen version, Vancouver Sun version, homepage version) focuses on the reaction to iOptOut.ca which includes advice from at least two Canadian associations to their members not to respect the legitimate opt-out requests of thousands of Canadians. I argue that this provides a good sense of what lies ahead this fall when the government-mandated list makes its long awaited debut. The iOptOut.ca site is based on a simple premise, namely that Canadian privacy law already gives Canadians the right to withdraw their consent over the use of their personal information (including phone numbers) for telemarketing calls. Visitors to the site are asked to enter their phone number (and email address if they wish) and to indicate their privacy preferences for nearly 150 organizations.
With a single click, the selected organizations each receive an opt-out request, enforceable for the moment through the complaint process under national privacy law. Once the do-not-call list is up and running, there will be a further enforcement mechanism – complete with financial penalties – for those organizations that do not respect the opt-out request. After only one week online, it has become readily apparent that the site has struck a chord with Canadians. More than 17,000 phone numbers have been registered, resulting in over 1.7 million opt-out requests. Interestingly, many users pick-and-choose their organizations, as over a quarter of all registrants do not check all available options.