stoddartcolumn Appeared in the Toronto Star on January 23, 2011 as Empower Privacy Watchdogs to Enforce Laws, Name Offenders By virtually every measure, 2010 was a remarkably successful year for Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. Riding the wave of high profile investigations into the privacy practices of Internet giants Facebook […]
Wiertz Sebastien - Privacy by Sebastien Wiertz (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/ahk6nh
Privacy
Ontario Privacy Commish Sides With Opt-Out on Behavioural Online Tracking
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, one of the leading privacy groups in the U.S., makes the case for an opt-in approach, noting that it would better protect consumer privacy and is consistent with many other U.S. privacy statutes. It adds that:
Opt-in is more effective than opt-out because it encourages companies to explain the benefits of information sharing, and to eliminate barriers to exercising choice. Experience with opt-out has shown that companies tend to obfuscate the process of exercising choice, or that exemptions are created to make opt-outimpossible.
Stoddart to Give Public Lecture on Privacy Protection
Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart will give a free, public lecture on making privacy protection more effective for Canadians at the University of Ottawa on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. Details here.
The Letters of the Law: 2010 in Tech Law from A to Z
A is for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which concluded in October with a watered-down treaty after the U.S. caved on several controversial Internet issues.
B is for Black v. Breeden, an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling involving postings on the Hollinger International, Inc. website that Conrad Black claimed were defamatory.
C is for Crookes v. Newton, the high-profile Supreme Court case that addressed the liability hyperlinks between websites.
D is for the do-not-call list, which gained new life when the CRTC pressured Bell into paying $1.3 million for multiple violations of the list rules.
E is for the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, the initial name of Canada’s anti-spam legislation that received royal assent in December, six years after a task force recommended new Canadian spam laws.
Federal Court Awards PIPEDA Damages
Slaw reports that a federal court judge has awarded $5,000 in damages to a self-represented applicant for violations of PIPEDA, relating to an inaccurate credit report.
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