TAGGED AS PRIVACY
LinkedIn disputes privacy breach claims
Media | 04/29/2021 5:19 pm EDT
Professional networking platform LinkedIn will have its applications for a summary trial heard in the Supreme Court of British Columbia related to two separate proposed class-action suits against it over alleged privacy violations.
In the first instance, LinkedIn -- which...
Experts question effectiveness of online harm regulator
Media | 03/31/2021 6:03 pm EDT
Panelists reflecting Wednesday on Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s description of how a new regulator that could be formed through anti-online harm legislation that has yet to be tabled are critical of what one called an “opaque” process.
During an interview...
OPC seeks future-proof updates to public sector privacy laws
telecom | 03/25/2021 7:36 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner wants Canada’s yet-to-be revamped...
Clearview AI engaged in illegal mass surveillance: privacy commissioners
Media | 02/03/2021 6:43 pm EST
The facial recognition technology company used by dozens of police...
Court should strike portions of OPC affidavit: Facebook
Media | 01/21/2021 6:30 pm EST
On the second day of a preliminary hearing into a dispute between Facebook and the federal privacy watchdog Thursday, the social media giant presented arguments to a Federal Court judge that the court...
Facebook, OPC square off in court over Cambridge Analytica report
Media | 01/20/2021 5:05 pm EST
The motto of Facebook Inc. is, famously, "move fast and break things." ...
New privacy legislation mixed bag in terms of enforcement, experts say
telecom | 12/18/2020 1:24 pm EST
When the federal government’s proposed new privacy legislation, Bill C-11, was announced in November, Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains billed it is an “important step”...
OPC finds Desjardins too passive about data protection prior to 2019 breach
telecom | 12/14/2020 2:48 pm EST
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has released its report into a major data breach at the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec, which affected around 9.7 million individuals and...
OPC supports PIAC call for CRTC to clarify rules for tracing apps
telecom | 12/01/2020 5:48 pm EST
While it believes the CRTC's existing definition of "customer confidential...
Journalistic exemption under PIPEDA should apply to Google: CBC
Media | 11/26/2020 6:16 pm EST
In a case that could determine whether a "right to be forgotten" exists in...
OPC expresses concern over privacy rights in government’s PIPEDA update
Media | 11/20/2020 2:31 pm EST
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has responded to the Liberal government’s proposed new privacy legislation for the private sector — while the office “welcomes” Bill...
Gov’t tables PIPEDA reform, new consumer privacy legislation
Media | 11/17/2020 5:54 pm EST
The federal government introduced sweeping private-sector privacy law...
Government launches Privacy Act consultation
Media | 11/16/2020 6:34 pm EST
The federal government today announced that it is launching a public consultation on reviewing the Privacy Act, Canada's public sector privacy law. In a Monday evening release, the Department of Justice said that members of...
OPC seeks right for Canadians to push back on AI decision making
Media | 11/13/2020 8:14 pm EST
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has issued its...
PIAC requests privacy review of contact tracing apps
telecom | 10/29/2020 6:24 pm EDT
Six months after the CRTC declined its request to hold an inquiry into contact tracing technologies and...
Facial recognition in malls violated privacy, commissioners say
telecom | 10/29/2020 5:58 pm EDT
An investigation into the use of facial recognition technology to analyze age and gender of customers in shopping malls owned by Cadillac Fairview concluded that it violated Canadian privacy law, the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Thursday. The OPC launched the investigation in 2018, conducted alongside the Alberta and B.C. privacy commissioners. It said in a press release Thursday that the company, which embedded cameras in 12 shopping malls across Canada, “used facial recognition technology without their customers’ knowledge or consent.” The release said the...
OPC joins counterparts in calling for safeguards on facial recognition and AI
telecom | 10/28/2020 6:43 pm EDT
The federal privacy watchdog has joined its counterparts from 12 other countries in calling for "stronger privacy protections and greater accountability" when it comes to the development and use of...
OPC failed to observe ‘bedrock rules of evidence’ in court: Facebook
Media | 10/27/2020 10:33 am EDT
Facebook Inc. is asking a judge to throw out significant chunks of an...
Proposed Quebec privacy law overhaul ‘concerning’: Bell lawyer
Media | 10/20/2020 6:17 pm EDT
Speaking Tuesday morning at an online event, Bell assistant general counsel...
OPC launches investigations into cyber attacks on GCKey and CRA
telecom | 10/14/2020 5:11 pm EDT
The federal privacy watchdog has launched a pair of investigations into a series of cyberattacks on the Canada Revenue Agency and the GCKey credential used by federal agencies. In a Tuesday...
Commish ‘frustrated for Canadian citizens’ as privacy laws lag
telecom | 10/08/2020 5:53 pm EDT
The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened privacy concerns around activities like videoconferencing, ehealth and elearning that have become more prevalent in our lives, the Office...
Videotron launches physical distancing wristband
telecom | 09/24/2020 2:34 pm EDT
Quebecor Inc. has launched a wristband that lights up and vibrates when individuals come too close to...
Back to Parliament: your (pandemic) preview
Media | 09/22/2020 12:43 pm EDT
Given the precarious situation around the now-escalating COVID-19 pandemic, what will actually be...
OPC stresses mandatory breach reporting with new guidelines
telecom | 09/16/2020 7:03 pm EDT
The federal privacy watchdog Tuesday published its guidance for private businesses to abide by mandatory reporting of data breaches in order to stay compliant under the federal privacy law, the...
Google not shielded by journalistic protections, OPC tells court
Media | 09/11/2020 1:57 pm EDT
Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien has urged Federal Court to find the...
Algorithmic policing a threat to freedoms: Citizen Lab report
telecom | 09/01/2020 5:35 pm EDT
The use of algorithms and surveillance technologies by police forces in...
OPC happy with tracing app, but not with privacy law
telecom | 08/28/2020 5:00 pm EDT
In a letter to shadow ministers, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien assures opposition MPs that the...
OPC publishes IoT device guidelines
telecom | 08/21/2020 5:17 pm EDT
The federal privacy watchdog published its guidance for manufacturers of so-called Internet of Things devices, in an effort to ensure their compliance with the federal privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and...
Ontario considers privacy overhaul
telecom | 08/14/2020 3:39 pm EDT
The Ontario government has launched a public consultation in a bid to improve the province’s privacy protection laws. The consultation will involve an online survey, written submissions and web conference, the Ministry of...
eHealth raises data, privacy, and clinical questions: experts
Media | 08/05/2020 6:07 pm EDT
eHealth technologies have been widely billed as bridging divides between patients and clinicians, and were recently touted by Alberta premier Jason Kenney as "simply a 21st-century version of calling up the doctor."
But observers in the world of data protection and...
CIRA, CIPPIC, BCCLA intervene in site-blocking case
telecom | 08/04/2020 5:07 pm EDT
In a much-watched appeal of Canada's first-ever site-blocking court order, three separate opponents of the order have filed two interventions asking the Federal Court of Appeal to strike down the order. In the first of the...
UPDATED: OPC now says it supports COVID-19 tracing app
Media | 07/31/2020 8:52 am EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has cleared up uncertainty about...
CIPPIC and CBC can intervene in de-indexing case, court rules
Media | 07/27/2020 5:16 pm EDT
Federal Court has said that both the CBC/Radio-Canada and the...
OPC signs joint letter to video conferencing platforms about privacy concerns
telecom | 07/22/2020 4:33 pm EDT
An open letter to online video teleconferencing (VTC) platforms signed by...
Alberta tracing app review could ‘inspire confidence’: privacy expert
telecom | 07/14/2020 6:20 pm EDT
In its long-awaited privacy review of ABTraceTogether, Alberta's COVID-19 contact tracing app, the provincial privacy watchdog has recommended that Alberta Health update its...
Civil society orgs call for ban on law enforcement use of facial recognition tech
Media | 07/08/2020 3:35 pm EDT
Some 31 different civil society organizations have signed an open letter to Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban on the use of facial recognition technologies by Canadian law...
Clearview AI pulls its facial recognition tech following OPC investigation
telecom | 07/06/2020 5:27 pm EDT
Just over four months after the Office of the Privacy Commissioner...
Pandemic has increased need for privacy rights, OPC told Guilbealt
Media | 06/30/2020 5:08 pm EDT
COVID-19 has made privacy rights even more important, the federal privacy commissioner’s office told Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault in May. A presentation prepared by the Office of the...
Privacy commissioners investigating Tim Hortons app
telecom | 06/29/2020 5:26 pm EDT
The federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner, as well as the provincial commissioners in Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, are looking into the collection of geo-location data by a coffee chain app. They said in a press...
Assess privacy before launching contact tracing apps, advocacy groups say
telecom | 06/24/2020 5:09 pm EDT
Contact tracing apps aimed at assisting public health authorities in...
Privacy commissioner hasn’t approved new gov’t contact tracing app
telecom | 06/18/2020 3:48 pm EDT
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that in developing the federal...
Gov’t launches AI centre in Montreal
Media | 06/15/2020 3:14 pm EDT
Innovation, Science, and Economic Development announced on Monday the launch of what it is calling the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), as well as a research centre to be based in Monteal in cooperation with...
Outdated privacy laws may hamper COVID-19 tracing: Therrien
telecom | 05/29/2020 7:00 pm EDT
The outdated state of Canadian privacy laws may harm efforts to launch a...
Facebook to pay $9 million to Competition Bureau after investigation
telecom | 05/19/2020 4:19 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. must pay a $9 million penalty to the Competition Bureau after making "false or misleading claims" about the privacy of personal information on the main Facebook platform and its Messenger app, according to a Tuesday release from the Competition Bureau. The social media giant will also pay $500,000 to the bureau for the cost of the investigation, which took place between 2012 and 2018. The investigation found that despite telling users they could control who had access to...
CRTC rejects request to hold contact-tracing inquiry
telecom | 05/13/2020 4:09 pm EDT
The CRTC has rejected a Public Interest Advocacy Centre request that it look into the involvement of...
Canadians broadly supportive of COVID-19 tracing apps: survey
telecom | 05/08/2020 5:41 pm EDT
Some eight in 10 Canadians support the use of wireless data to track the spread of COVID-19, and 65 per cent of Canadians think it should be mandatory, according to a survey released by three federal...
Google’s Sidewalk Labs pulls out of Toronto smart city project
telecom | 05/07/2020 3:43 pm EDT
Alphabet Inc.’s Google will no longer participate in the Sidewalk Labs...
PIAC calls for providers to detail COVID-19 tracing involvement
telecom | 05/04/2020 6:14 pm EDT
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre is asking for all Canadian...
Facebook targets procedural fairness at OPC in court filing
Media | 04/27/2020 5:16 pm EDT
Facebook Inc.'s request that Federal Court throw out a report from the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner may highlight the issue of procedural fairness within the OPC, and could be a preview of what the social media giant will want in any update to privacy law,...
Alberta privacy commish investigating Telus Health app
telecom | 04/21/2020 6:01 pm EDT
Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner will launch two separate...
Gov’t in ‘early stages’ of using cellphone data for COVID-19 tracking: Bains
telecom | 04/20/2020 3:40 pm EDT
The federal government is looking at what other jurisdictions are doing...
Pump the brakes on COVID data tracking, advocacy groups warn
telecom | 04/15/2020 5:35 pm EDT
Despite the extraordinary desire to stop the spread of COVID-19, there is still no justification for mass unwarranted surveillance of identifiable people, according to a joint statement of principles...
OPC reprimanded Bell over repeated delays in 2018: doc
telecom | 04/15/2020 2:30 pm EDT
BCE Inc.’s delays and incomplete responses to multiple information access...
Provinces collaborating on cellphone tracking: Tam
telecom | 04/14/2020 2:19 pm EDT
Canadian authorities are “pulling together a group amongst the provinces and territories to gauge interest” in using cellphone data to track the spread of COVID-19, Canada’s chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, said...
Quebec City police used location data to track infected individual
telecom | 04/06/2020 5:15 pm EDT
In March, Quebec City police used cellphone location data to track and then arrest a woman infected with COVID-19 who refused to self-isolate. The Canadian Press quoted Quebec City chief Robert...
Canadian authorities in talks about COVID-19 tracking apps
telecom | 03/31/2020 5:54 pm EDT
Several of Canada’s cities and provinces, as well as the federal...
Telus Health ‘scaling up’ as COVID-19 spreads
telecom | 03/30/2020 5:11 pm EDT
Telus Corp.’s years-long investment in e-health and telemedicine has...
Rempel Garner calls for transparency on any cellphone tracking
telecom | 03/25/2020 4:44 pm EDT
Conservative industry critic Michelle Rempel Garner said Wednesday that if the federal government uses cellphone location data to track the spread of COVID-19, it should be transparent about the process and work with the opposition to put in place safeguards.
Prime...
Feds, 4 provinces not looking at COVID-19 phone tracking
telecom | 03/24/2020 12:39 pm EDT
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday the federal government isn’t...
Canada could track COVID-19 through cellphones: experts
telecom | 03/20/2020 3:25 pm EDT
As reports emerge of countries around the world using cellphone location...
Data leaked from 1,200 Koodo customers
telecom | 03/09/2020 4:30 pm EDT
Telus Corp. has confirmed that its flanker brand Koodo Mobile was subject to a data breach in February,...
After seeing Bell’s AI call-blocking methodology, ISCC still unhappy
telecom | 03/04/2020 5:26 pm EST
The Canadian chapter of the Internet Society is not satisfied with what it...
OPC investigating RCMP over facial recognition
telecom | 02/28/2020 5:14 pm EST
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner today announced it is launching an investigation into the use of facial recognition software by the RCMP.
In a statement released Friday morning, the office said it would investigate in light of the RCMP’s admitting to using the...
Privacy commissioners to investigate Clearview AI
telecom | 02/21/2020 3:14 pm EST
An investigation into Clearview AI has been launched by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, as well as three provincial privacy commissioners, due to growing concerns about the use of controversial facial recognition...
BTLR on telecom: a Q&A with Janet Yale
Media | 02/14/2020 5:31 pm EST
In a phone interview with Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel chair Janet Yale,...
Privacy commish launches AI consultation
Media | 01/28/2020 5:55 pm EST
OTTAWA — Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien is adding artificial intelligence (AI) to his...
Canadian law should codify privacy as a human right: OPC
Media | 12/10/2019 6:05 pm EST
OTTAWA — Federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien told reporters...
AIQ investigation shows need for strong privacy laws, OPC says
Media | 11/26/2019 6:22 pm EST
At a Vancouver press conference Tuesday, the federal and British Columbia...
Privacy commissioners call for updated privacy law
telecom | 11/11/2019 5:58 pm EST
In a joint resolution, passed in Prince Edward Island last month and announced in Gatineau last week, federal, provincial and territorial information and privacy commissioners are calling on their respective governments to...
Cell data tracking company continues lobby push, despite tough reception
telecom | 11/05/2019 11:44 am EST
A company that says its privacy-focused software app can tell employers...
Consensus on ‘digital giants,’ data breaches in French debate
Media | 10/10/2019 11:57 pm EDT
Federal party leaders agreed Thursday evening in the last debate of the...
CIRA finds 43% of organizations unaware of breach notification rules
Media | 10/09/2019 5:51 pm EDT
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) says in a new report that 43 per cent of the 500 Canadian business and organizations it surveyed were unaware that Canada’s privacy laws require them to report data breaches. Since November 2018, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) has required that organizations that suffer a breach of users’ personal information conduct a risk assessment to determine if the breach poses a “real risk of...
Two arrested in Bell data breach affecting 97k
telecom | 10/08/2019 5:41 pm EDT
The RCMP Tuesday announced the arrest and charge of two people in connection with a 2018 data...
Political parties’ use of Facebook Pixel violates CASL, CDR says
telecom | 10/08/2019 2:23 pm EDT
The Centre for Digital Rights, the non-profit founded by former BlackBerry Ltd. co-CEO Jim Balsillie, is asking the CRTC to agree that political parties engage in what is effectively commercial...
Leaders talk Netflix taxes, privacy in TVA election debate
Media | 10/02/2019 10:51 pm EDT
During the first French-language debate of the federal election campaign,...
Bell and Stingray partner on targeted ads for radio, audio streaming
Media | 09/26/2019 5:05 pm EDT
BCE Inc. and Stingray Group Inc. have launched a targeted advertising platform that allows ads to be placed on their radio stations, audio streaming apps and podcasts. The companies said in a press...
Green Party platform: no anonymous social media, 5G rollout on hold
telecom | 09/16/2019 5:14 pm EDT
The Green Party election platform includes promises to ensure only individuals whose identities have been verified can set up social media accounts and indicates a Green...
CBSA moving data to Amazon cloud amid security concerns
telecom | 08/13/2019 6:52 pm EDT
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is seeking assistance in moving...
As tech gains steam, rules on facial recognition still developing
Media | 07/18/2019 5:38 pm EDT
As facial recognition becomes increasingly accessible to police and other...
Privacy breach reports up five-fold: OPC
Media | 06/19/2019 4:37 pm EDT
Since new regulations requiring the reporting of data and privacy breaches under Canadian privacy law came into effect last November, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has seen a five-fold increase in reports of privacy...
House committee recommends gov’t uphold data de-identification
telecom | 06/18/2019 4:53 pm EDT
In the government’s move to digitize its institutions, the House of Commons ethics committee is recommending that it ensures personal information used for research is anonymized, according to a new...
OPC re-issues cross-border data consultations
telecom | 06/11/2019 6:24 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has re-issued its consultation on protections for personal information leaving the country, after pausing the process in late May. It did so in the wake of the government’s release of...
Privacy group wants to help OPC form future guidelines
telecom | 06/10/2019 2:34 pm EDT
A new group made up of businesses and industry associations wants to help...
Privacy should be considered in competition decisions, conference hears
Media | 05/31/2019 7:17 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The concept of privacy should factor more prominently in competition law when it comes to regulating social media and big data, a conference heard on Thursday. “Users need to be able...
Data anonymization network launches amid privacy concerns
Media | 05/31/2019 6:24 pm EDT
A consortium of data stewards launched an informal network last week that looks to promote the anonymization of personal information in Canada in the wake of data privacy concerns sweeping the...
International legislators flag regulatory options for data giants
Media | 05/29/2019 6:01 pm EDT
OTTAWA - Legislators on Tuesday gave some sense of what regulatory options may be coming down the road for big data and social media giants as lawmakers from Canada and some...
OPC pausing cross-border data consult after Digital Charter release
Media | 05/23/2019 4:22 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said this week it’s suspending its consultation on protections for personal information leaving the country because the government’s new digital charter...
ISED ‘digital charter’ recommends enhancing OPC powers
Media | 05/21/2019 8:30 pm EDT
Innovation Canada is recommending that the privacy commissioner be vested...
Digital rights group studying privacy policies of political parties
Media | 05/15/2019 6:01 pm EDT
The Centre for Digital Rights has hired new lobbyists to help it research...
Ontario court certifies class action over Bell’s relevant ad program
Media | 05/14/2019 3:46 pm EDT
A class action against BCE Inc.’s controversial 2013 relevant advertising program will be heard in an Ontario Court. The action, which alleges that the program violated the plaintiffs’ privacy...
OPC will file suit against Facebook before election: Commish
Media | 05/08/2019 1:27 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The Office of the Privacy Commissioner plans to file in Federal Court a lawsuit against Facebook Inc. before this year’s federal election, commissioner Daniel Therrien said Tuesday, following the completion of a year-long investigation that found the social...
Experts say there is no road map for a Facebook-OPC court fight
Media | 05/01/2019 4:17 pm EDT
If the Office of the Privacy Commissioner takes Facebook Inc. to Federal...
OPC will ask court to force changes to Facebook privacy practices
Media | 04/25/2019 5:47 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Thursday it is...
Court rejects Google motion to expand scope of deindexing case
Media | 04/17/2019 6:31 pm EDT
A chief Federal Court clerk has rejected Alphabet Inc.’s request to expand to constitutional questions the scope of a legal reference that seeks to determine whether Canada’s private sector...
OPC to monitor Equifax for six years
telecom | 04/09/2019 5:12 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Tuesday that it has concluded its investigation into the...
OPC to consult ‘shortly’ on data transiting through foreign countries
telecom | 04/05/2019 1:13 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner considers personal data of Canadians...
Google would be regulating media under PIPEDA: counsel
Media | 03/21/2019 6:28 pm EDT
OTTAWA — If a court determines Google’s search engine falls under the country’s private sector privacy law, then that would effectively make the internet company a media regulator, counsel to...
OPC welcomes ‘interim relief’ from budget pressures
Media | 03/20/2019 5:43 pm EDT
The 2019 federal budget is boosting funding to the office of the privacy...
Dozens of MP’s online accounts appeared in data breaches
Media | 03/18/2019 5:41 pm EDT
Nearly a hundred emails for members of parliament — among them eight...
OPC, AGC oppose Google expanding deindexing reference
Media | 03/14/2019 4:49 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Attorney General of Canada (AGC) have filed appeals challenging Alphabet Inc.’s application to expand the scope of a deindexing case to include questions about whether forcing it to scrub its search engine infringes on its free expression rights. The OPC filed the original application last year for judicial guidance on whether the country’s private sector privacy law applies to Google’s search engine. The request came after an individual, who was charged with failing to disclose HIV status to a sexual partner, asked the OPC to order...