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

Anti-Spam Bill Receives Royal Assent

On May 11, 2004, the Government launched Canada’s Task Force on Spam.  I was honoured to participate on the Task Force, which unanimously recommended anti-spam legislation its report issued on May 17, 2005.  Yesterday – 2038 days after the release of the report – Bill C-28, the anti-spam bill, received […]

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December 16, 2010 2 comments News

Location Matters Up in the Cloud

The Wikileaks disclosure of hundreds of U.S. diplomatic cables has dominated news coverage for the past two weeks as governments struggled to respond to public disclosure of sensitive, secret information.  My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) noted that one of the most noteworthy developments in the first week was Amazon’s decision to abruptly stop hosting the Wikileaks site hours after U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman exerted political pressure on the company to do so.  

Amazon is best known for its e-commerce site, yet it is also one of the world’s leading cloud computing providers, offering instant website hosting to thousands of companies and websites. In recent years, the combination of massive computer server farms in remote locations and high speed networks have enabled cloud computing to emerge as a critical mechanism for offering online services and delivering Internet content.

After Amazon pulled the plug, Wikileaks quickly shifted to a European host, demonstrating how easily sites can shift from one cloud provider to another. Although it seems counter-intuitive to consider the physical location of cloud computing equipment when discussing services that by their very definition operate across borders in the “cloud”, the Wikileaks-Amazon incident provided an important reminder that location matters when it comes to cloud computing.

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December 10, 2010 24 comments Columns

Location Matters Up in the Cloud

Appeared in the Toronto Star on December 5, 2010 as Location Matters Up in the Cloud The Wikileaks disclosure of hundreds of U.S. diplomatic cables dominated news coverage last week as governments struggled to respond to public disclosure of sensitive, secret information. One of the most noteworthy developments was Amazon’s […]

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December 9, 2010 1 comment Columns Archive

Canadian Courts Set High Bar for Privacy Damage Awards

When privacy violations occur, the first reaction for many victims is to search for a way to stop the offending conduct. The second response may be to invoke the law by filing a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Hundreds of complaints are filed every year and most are resolved with an explanation for what occurred, a change in corporate policy, or occasionally a formal apology.  My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that a growing number of complainants have been left unsatisfied with this outcome, however, and are turning to the courts for damage awards.

Two recent Federal Court decisions grappled with the issue of damage awards for privacy violations and arrived at the same conclusion – personal privacy is not worth much when it comes actual compensation for privacy breaches or abuses.

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November 30, 2010 13 comments Columns

Canadian Courts Set High Bar for Privacy Damage Awards

Appeared in the Toronto Star on November 28, 2010 as Canadian Courts Set High Bar for Privacy Damage Awards When privacy violations occur, the first reaction for many victims is to search for a way to stop the offending conduct. The second response may be to invoke the law by […]

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November 30, 2010 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive