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The Canadian Privacy Law Blog

The Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Developments in privacy law and writings of a Canadian privacy lawyer, containing information related to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (aka PIPEDA) and other Canadian and international laws.

Post Frequency: 2.3/day

Last Entry: October 07, 2020 at 10:02:01

Government proposes to fingerprint before charges

Posted on May 25, 2009
The federal government introduced legislation in Parliament to "modernize" criminal procedure in Canada. What it means, among other things, is that police will get the authority to fingerprint suspects even before charges are laid. Bill C-31 amends the Identification of Criminals Act (but oddly doesn't rename it the Identification of Criminals and People We Don't Have Enough Evidence to Charge Act)...

Ontario Commissioner releases 2008 annual report and prepares for battle with Victoria University

Posted on May 13, 2009
The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has released her 2008 Annual Report, which makes broad recommendations for changes to the laws in Ontario and calls for the adoption of better practices: IPC - Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario Commissioner Cavoukian lays out path for increased privacy protection & accountability ? doing battle with Victoria University Commissioner Cavoukian lays out path for increased privacy protection & accountability ? doing battle with Victoria University TORONTO ? Ontario?s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr...

British anti-terror laws lead to searches every three minutes

Posted on May 09, 2009
I was stunned to read that British police use new anti-terror powers to stop and search people every three minutes. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act has been used 170,000 to search people in 2008 alone according to the BBC. (See: BBC NEWS | England | London | Capital sees rise in terror stops...

Attorney Can?t Ask 3rd Party to ?Friend? Witness on Facebook, Opinion Says

Posted on May 08, 2009
Here's something interesting ... An advisory opinion by the Philadelphia Bar Association says it's unethical to ask a third party to friend someone on Facebook to obtain information about them: Attorney Can?t Ask 3rd Party to ?Friend? Witness on Facebook, Opinion Says ABA Journal - Law News Now Attorney Can?t Ask 3rd Party to ?Friend? Witness on Facebook, Opinion Says Posted May 5, 2009, 07:38 pm CDT By Martha Neil A lawyer who wants to see what a potential witness says to personal contacts on his or her Facebook or MySpace page has one good option, a recent ethics opinion suggests: Ask for access...

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Amendments to Alberta liquor legislation to re-permit info collection

Posted on May 05, 2009
Presuably to counteract the effects of the Information and Privacy Commissioner's decision that bans siping licenses at bars in the province (Alberta Commissioner forbids license scanning), the Alberta legislature is considering Bill 42 which permits the collection of similar information: Legislative Assembly of Alberta - Bill 42: Gaming and Liquor Amendment Act, 2009 Collection of personal information by licensee 69...

Canadian anti-spam bill introduced

Posted on April 27, 2009
The Industry Minister tabled the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA) in Parliament at the end of last week. Here's the government's press release and backgrounder: Industry Canada Site - Government of Canada Protects Canadians with the Electronic Commerce Protection Act Government of Canada Protects Canadians with the Electronic Commerce Protection Act OTTAWA, April 24, 2009 ? The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, today announced that the Government of Canada is delivering on its commitment to protect consumers and businesses from the most dangerous and damaging forms of spam...

Presentation on Twittering Lawyers

Posted on April 18, 2009
I was honoured to be invited to the ABA Business Section's spring meeting in Vancouver to give a presentation on Twitter and Lawyers. For those who are interested, here's the presentation: If Google isn't showing you proper respect, here's a PDF of the slides: http://www...

New technology watches the watchers to tell them what they should have watched

Posted on April 14, 2009
Or, a new technology that supervises the people who are paid to stare at screens, tracking their eyes to let them know what parts of the screens they've been missing. See: Eyeball spy turns the tables on Big Brother - tech - 14 April 2009 - New Scientist via Boing Boing, which doesn't miss a thing and never needs a newfangled gadget tell it that...

Live from the ABA in Vancouver

Posted on April 13, 2009
If you're going to be in Vancouver for the American Bar Association's Business law meeting later this week, drop by my sessions on Thursday from 1:30 - 3:00 to talk about lawyers and social networking and on Saturday from 8:30 - 9:30 for lawyers on twitter...

Next generation in CCTV

Posted on April 12, 2009
The New York Times has an interesting piece on developments in CCTV technology. The Digital Window D7 uses a number of compact cameras to piece together a full 180 degree panorama without any distortion. This means that a small camera installation can have a very wide field of view, capturing more than you might think...

Statebook: A place to access your citizens' information

Posted on April 11, 2009
The ever vigilant Boing Boing is linking to "Statebook", a spoof site about UK surveillance of citizens. Check it out:

If you want to fly, show us your body or we'll feel you up

Posted on April 09, 2009
An interesting review of the increasing intrusiveness of airport security: The expanding invasion of the naked body scanners. - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine.

Mind your trash

Posted on April 09, 2009
The Supreme Court of Canada today released its decision in R. v. Patrick, 2009 SCC 17 (CanLII), an important privacy decision. The case considers whether it is an unreasonable invasion of privacy for the police to rummage through your trash without a warrant...

Lessons From the Identity Trail

Posted on April 09, 2009
Ian Kerr and Val Steeves have been heading up "On the Identity Trail" (research on privacy and identity in the networked world) for the last few years and are launching a book by Oxford University Press. But it's available online under a CC license. Read on: On the Identity Trail - Lessons From the Identity Trail Book Launch...

European internet firms must start logging communications as of today

Posted on April 06, 2009
As of today, all internet service providers in Europe are required by law to retain information about every e-mail and VOIP call made by their users thanks to the European Data Retention Directive. BBC NEWS Technology Net firms start storing user data Details of user e-mails and net phone calls will be stored by internet service providers (ISPs) from Monday under an EU directive...

Cheating husband caught on Google Street View

Posted on April 01, 2009
The Sun in the UK is reporting that a cheating husband has been caught by his curious wife after she checked out a friend's house on Google Street View and noticed her husband's Range Rover parked in front of the house. She says he was supposed to be away on business at the time, which seems a bit hard to understand as the time the photos are taken aren't published by Google...

EU to warn internet companies about consumer profiling

Posted on March 31, 2009
According to the New York Times, European consumer affairs regulators plan to go after internet companies for privacy practices, particularly the profiling and targeting of consumers. See: E.U. Warns Internet Companies on User Privacy - NYTimes.com.

Hospital staff fired for peeks at Nadya Suleman's files

Posted on March 31, 2009
The LA Times' blog "Dish Rag" is reporting that fifteen employees of Kaiser Permanente have been fired and eight disciplined for looking at the medical records of Nadya Suleman (aka the Octomom). Hospital staff fired for peeks at Nadya Suleman's files The Dish Rag Los Angeles Times...

Schneier: It's Time to Drop the 'Expectation of Privacy' Test

Posted on March 27, 2009
In a Wired column, Bruce Schneier hits the nail on the head by calling for the end of the "expectation of privacy test". To put it simply: "The problem is, in today's information society, that definition test will rapidly leave us with no privacy at all...

Alberta court upholds Commissioner's order against licence scanning at bar

Posted on March 26, 2009
According to the CBC, an Alberta court has upheld Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work's order that prohibited the wholesale scanning of drivers licenses at a nightclub. See: Court upholds privacy ruling against nightclub scanning IDs.

Saskatchewan abandons RFID licence scheme

Posted on March 26, 2009
Apparently Saskatchewan is planning to abandon using embedded RFIDs in licenses that can be read up to thirty feet away, while Ontario is trying to find a solution that allows individuals to turn off the broadcast of personal information. See: Saskatchewan cancels RFID licences while Ontario looks for off-switch...

Google Street View's privacy enhancing technology?

Posted on March 25, 2009
With Google's recent launch of Street View in Europe and imminent photographing of Canadian cities, I thought I'd do some quick looking around at how effective their "face blurring" technology may be. It only took one minute of wandering around London and I was able to see where it might fall off the rails...

Commissioner taking Air Canada to court over customer access to info

Posted on March 24, 2009
According to CanWest, the Privacy Commissioner is taking Air Canada to court over access to customer information that the airline claims is covered by solicitor-client privilege: Air Canada sued over passenger info case OTTAWA ? Canada's privacy commissioner is taking Air Canada to court to compel the airline to release records involving a so-called "unruly" customer, arguing passengers should be able to know the information air carriers are collecting about them...

Google Street View coming to Canada

Posted on March 24, 2009
Google Street View is coming to Canada. According to Google, the camera cars are going to be hitting the streets in major Canadian cities any time soon. They plan to blur faces and license plates and, one can infer, they think this is enough to deal with privacy issues here...

Google forced to black out hundreds of UK Street View photos after privacy protests

Posted on March 22, 2009
Google Street View went live in the UK last week. Despite the prevalence of surveillance in Britain, complaints have rolled in and Google has taken down hundreds of pictures. See: Google forced to black out hundreds of Street View photos after privacy protests - but site gets record hits Mail Online...

Geist on privacy rights buried in the fine print

Posted on March 17, 2009
Michael Geist's most recent Toronto Star Column addresses the fine print in ISP customer agreements that purport to permit the ISP to hand customer names and addresses to the police without a warrant. Read Michael's column: Michael Geist - Canadian Privacy Rights Buried in the Fine Print Appeared in the Toronto Star on March 16, 2009 as Canadian Privacy Rights Buried in the Fine Print Scott McNealy, the former CEO of Sun Microsystems, has achieved considerable notoriety for having warned Internet users ten years ago that "you have no privacy, get over it...

AdSense webmasters told to update privacy policies

Posted on March 14, 2009
Google has just sent webmasters who use Google's AdSense a notice suggesting that privacy policies need to be updated because the ad service is going to be much more targeted. Here's what landed in my inbox:Hi, We're writing to let you know about the upcoming launch of interest-based advertising, which will require you to review and make any necessary changes to your site's privacy policies...

Ontario commissioner calls for "privacy filters" on whole-body scanners

Posted on March 12, 2009
The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario is calling for implementing privacy filters to mitigate part of the damage to privacy caused by whole body scanners that are appearing soon in an airport near you. IPC - Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario Whats New Summary Whole Body Imaging (WBI) technologies ? which have been described in the media as ?naked scanners? ? raise significant privacy concerns that must to be addressed, says Ontario?s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr...

Chicago Links Street Cameras to Its 911 Network

Posted on March 06, 2009
In this story from the New York Times, the headline says it all: Chicago Links Street Cameras to Its 911 Network - NYTimes.comCHICAGO ? At first glance, Chicago?s latest crime-fighting strategy seems to be plucked from a Hollywood screenplay. Someone sees a thief dipping into a Salvation Army kettle in a crowd of shoppers on State Street and dials 911 from a cellphone...

Buy your own CCTV footage from UK amusement park

Posted on March 01, 2009

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