TAGGED AS PRIVACY
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...
Media parties dismissed in deindexing case, for now
Media | 03/04/2019 4:14 pm EST
The Federal Court has denied the CBC/Radio-Canada’s and the Media Coalition’s application to intervene in a case that will determine whether the privacy commissioner can order search engines to delist certain content -- at least until it deliberates on Alphabet Inc.’s motion to change the scope of proceedings. Google’s motion, which became available only after the intervention hearing last month, seeks to amend the original November reference to include a discussion of freedom of expression rights under the Charter. CBC called the privacy commissioner’s request an “indirect...
OPC’s deindexing position ‘indirect attack’ on CBC, lawyer says
Media | 02/11/2019 6:33 pm EST
OTTAWA — A lawyer for CBC/Radio-Canada who is asking the Federal Court to...
88% concerned about ‘smart city’ privacy: poll
telecom | 01/18/2019 2:11 pm EST
A new research paper on smart cities argues municipalities should proceed with caution on ‘smart’ projects and hyper-consult over the ways citizens’ data can be collected and used. “Municipalities should tread...
Bell expanding targeted ads program to all services
Media | 01/08/2019 3:38 pm EST
BCE Inc. is rolling out to more services a pre-existing program that asks its subscribers to consider giving the company their personal information to better target relevant ads to them. The program is an expansion of a...
Most Canadians support ‘right to be forgotten’: poll
telecom | 01/07/2019 3:01 pm EST
Canadians appear to be generally in favour of the ‘right to be forgotten’, with most showing support for the idea and a majority saying they would support having it set out in Canadian law,...
Ethics committee calls for new social media rules
Media | 12/11/2018 7:27 pm EST
OTTAWA — A House of Commons committee is unanimously calling for new rules for social media companies that require them to quickly remove fake accounts and illegal content or face fines, and to increase transparency over their algorithms and political advertising.
The...
Elections bill doesn’t ‘sufficiently protect’ against foreign meddling: senators
Media | 12/07/2018 2:22 pm EST
A Senate committee is concerned that the elections modernization bill introduced earlier this year and ahead of the 2019 federal election won’t do enough to “sufficiently...
Cellular search-and-rescue system RCAF’s domestic priority
telecom | 12/07/2018 9:35 am EST
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is currently testing radio technology...
OPC to Bains: privacy rights not ‘at odds’ with innovation
telecom | 12/05/2018 2:01 pm EST
The federal privacy watchdog is warning the Liberal government against...
Elections chief to Senate: give OPC oversight over party privacy policies
Media | 11/30/2018 3:09 pm EST
The head of Elections Canada is urging the government to give the privacy...
Political parties ‘bumbling rubes’ on data: CPC campaign chair
Media | 11/20/2018 4:58 pm EST
OTTAWA — The head of the Conservative Party’s 2019 national election...
Foreign Affairs says ‘too many’ employees falling for phishing attempts
Media | 11/19/2018 12:49 pm EST
The department of Foreign Affairs is looking for bidders to build a “phishing simulation initiative” to prepare its employees to better deal with such attempts. “Due to the increasingly...
Zuckerberg declines joint Canada-UK committee appearance
Media | 11/07/2018 1:50 pm EST
Facebook Inc.’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declined a joint-request by...
OPC tweaks breach notification over ‘notice fatigue’ fears
Media | 11/02/2018 3:53 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has made a change to its breach notification guidance to address wording that some lawyers warned could lead to multiple organizations sending out notices...
Privacy commish ‘surprised’ by political ‘chill’ comments
telecom | 11/01/2018 4:28 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Canada’s privacy commissioner said Thursday that comments made by a Liberal party counsel suggesting the country’s private sector privacy laws would deter...
MPs call on Zuckerberg to testify to international committee on ‘fake news’
Media | 10/31/2018 7:45 pm EDT
MPs in Canada and the United Kingdom have stepped up their efforts to get the chance to grill Facebook Inc.’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a parliamentary committee hearing. The chairs of two...
PIPEDA could put a ‘chill’ on political volunteers: Liberal counsel
telecom | 10/30/2018 4:57 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The consequences of bringing the country’s political parties...
OPC asks for more flexibility on info sharing with CRTC
telecom | 10/16/2018 4:38 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Canada’s federal privacy watchdog asked a Senate committee...
Lawyers warn of ‘notice fatigue’ from OPC breach guidelines
telecom | 10/10/2018 5:55 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s (OPC) draft reporting guidance...
OPC inquiring about Google+ leak
Media | 10/10/2018 2:34 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) said it is gathering more information about whether the personal information of Canadians was implicated in a leak involving an Alphabet Inc. social network. “Google has contacted us regarding the incident and we will be following up to gather more information about this incident, including whether it affected any Canadian users,” OPC spokesman Corey Larocque confirmed in an email to The Wire Report. On Monday, a Wall Street Journal report revealed that the search engine behemoth had a software bug that possibly gave third-party developers access to the private data of up to 500,000 Google+ accounts via 438 applications. It’s unclear if Canadians were implicated in the leak. On the same day the Journal report was published, Google said in a blog post the bug gave third-party apps...
Facebook warns of massive security breach, affecting 50M accounts
telecom | 09/28/2018 5:10 pm EDT
Almost 50 million Facebook user accounts have been affected after hackers...
OPC to seek court reference on search engine delisting
telecom | 09/27/2018 5:39 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien says he plans to...
Canadian privacy watchdogs urge privacy laws for political parties
Media | 09/17/2018 2:01 pm EDT
Canada's federal, provincial and territorial privacy watchdogs collectively...
Class action filed against Facebook over Android metadata collection
Media | 09/17/2018 12:35 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. is facing another class action suit in Ontario over how it...
New party, fresh faces on Heritage could shake up Parliament
Media | 09/14/2018 5:16 pm EDT
As politicians file back into Parliament Hill’s Centre Block for the...
Five Eyes sends warning on access to encrypted data
Media | 09/05/2018 9:21 pm EDT
Canada and its Five Eyes counterparts have issued a warning to communications and technology companies that if governments continue to face difficult hurdles to lawful access to data created by encryption without private sector...
OPC to look into face-scanning mall kiosks
telecom | 08/07/2018 2:27 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) will join Alberta’s provincial privacy watchdog...
Expert panel to lead roundtables for data policy consultation
telecom | 08/03/2018 2:07 pm EDT
The federal government has appointed a panel of experts who will lead roundtable discussions during the upcoming national data consultation. According to a Friday press release, the panel includes...
TekSavvy gets fewer info requests
telecom | 07/26/2018 5:46 pm EDT
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. saw a declining number of government requests for its subscriber information over 2017, it said in its latest quarterly transparency report.
The Chatham, Ont.-based telecom reported 14 requests for information in the fourth quarter of 2017, between October and December, it said in its July report. That represents a declining rate of requests as it reported 21 requests in third quarter, and 36 requests in the second, though it had 29 requests in the first.
Andy-Kaplan Myrth, vice-president of...
New Zealand company violated privacy of millions of Canadians: OPC
telecom | 07/19/2018 4:33 pm EDT
A company that copied and reused information posted on Facebook Inc.’s social media site violated the privacy of “potentially some” 4.5 million Canadians, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner...
Facebook facing £500,000 fine in privacy scandal
telecom | 07/11/2018 6:17 pm EDT
After the British Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found that Facebook Inc. had “security...
OPC names two new deputy commissioners
telecom | 07/06/2018 2:21 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said Friday it has named two new deputy commissioners, Gregory Smolynec and Brent Homan. It said in a press release that the appointments will “be instrumental in helping to...
Balsillie’s Centre for Digital Rights meets with OPC
telecom | 06/21/2018 4:00 pm EDT
A newly-minted data rights group spearheaded by former BlackBerry Ltd. co-CEO Jim Balsillie met with privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien in late May, according to the federal lobbying registry....
Private member’s bill aims to give privacy commish more powers
telecom | 06/21/2018 2:11 pm EDT
OTTAWA — As the House of Commons rose for summer break Wednesday afternoon, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith tabled a private member’s bill to give the privacy commissioner greater enforcement powers.
“What we have right now is an ombudsman; what we need is a...
Internet satisfaction high, but 27% don’t know their data caps: CIRA
Media | 06/20/2018 6:20 pm EDT
Just over a quarter of Canadians surveyed by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) said they don’t know how much broadband data they have, a concern a CIRA spokeswoman said could be...
Petition calls for empowered agency to compel deletion of false ads
telecom | 06/20/2018 6:10 pm EDT
Thousands of Canadians have signed separate petitions created by Democracy Watch, with one calling for a strengthening of the elections law body that could compel media sites to remove false ads....
Gov’t launches consultation on data, privacy
telecom | 06/19/2018 6:56 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The federal government said Tuesday it will hold consultations to look at the issue of data...
Ethics committee wants political parties to come under privacy legislation
Media | 06/19/2018 1:20 pm EDT
Following nine public meetings that began in March, the House committee...
Payfone-EnStream partner on ID authentication platform
telecom | 06/18/2018 5:42 pm EDT
A joint venture of the big three telecoms announced a partnership on Monday with U.S.-based Payfone Inc. to support the Canadian roll out of an app that could replace passwords in the future....
Balance needed for open data, privacy for smart cities: panelist
telecom | 06/15/2018 10:49 am EDT
TORONTO — Smart cities will require a proper framework that respects both...
CSE watchdog oversight, fall launch for cybersecurity centre
telecom | 06/12/2018 7:49 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS) now has a leader...
Don’t rush new laws for AI, data conference hears
telecom | 06/12/2018 7:36 pm EDT
TORONTO — There are ways to regulate artificial intelligence and the...
OPC says 90% budget increase would give it ‘true impact’
Media | 06/07/2018 3:55 pm EDT
The Office of The Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has asked the government for a 30-per-cent-increase to its budget, but said that it would need three times that amount for its work to have a significant effect.
In a letter to the House of Commons ethics committee, privacy...
Lack of cybersecurity framework mind-boggling: Telus exec
telecom | 06/04/2018 8:09 pm EDT
TORONTO — A security executive at Telus Corp. told an industry conference...
Apple takes aim at targeted ads with browser privacy features
Media | 06/04/2018 5:07 pm EDT
During its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday, Apple Inc....
Fewer businesses worried about data breaches: OPC
telecom | 06/01/2018 3:57 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) said its 2017 survey of Canadian businesses revealed that small businesses are less likely to have considered necessary privacy responsibilities than larger entities. The...
There’s space for ‘positive’ political targeting, Wylie tells MPs
Media | 05/30/2018 1:43 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Whistleblower and data scientist Christopher Wylie testified at...
Fate of online sting operations hanging in Supreme Court case
telecom | 05/29/2018 12:24 pm EDT
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) will have to weigh the impact its decision could have on online undercover operations pursued without a warrant by law enforcement, as it considers overturning a lower court ruling that found an alleged child predator did not have a...
Balsillie-led Centre for Digital Rights registers to lobby
Media | 05/25/2018 12:33 pm EDT
A new organization called the Centre for Digital Rights (CDR) that is...
Data collection, consent guidelines published by the OPC
Media | 05/24/2018 5:29 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has unveiled a set...
Border device search constitutionality case can proceed: U.S. judge
telecom | 05/18/2018 2:13 pm EDT
A federal judge in the United States has denied an attempt to dismiss a...
Security, data concerns drive two-phone phenomenon: Bell CEO
Media | 05/16/2018 11:16 am EDT
As stories about security and personal data breaches make the headlines,...
MPs hear about ‘surveillance capitalism,’ Google data use
Media | 05/11/2018 11:32 am EDT
OTTAWA — Two sides of the data-use debate squared off at the House ethics...
‘Unprecedented’ international cooperation in data scandal investigation: Angus
telecom | 05/03/2018 5:27 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The House of Commons ethics committee spoke to a British MP on...
OPC follows up on Rogers email complaints
telecom | 05/02/2018 4:43 pm EDT
On Tuesday, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) said it is opening an investigation...
Privacy commish flags ‘flaw’ in new elections bill
Media | 05/01/2018 2:42 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Proposed legislation that will require federal political parties...
Privacy heads ask for data protection in smart cities challenge
Media | 04/27/2018 5:13 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) is asking the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities to consider how privacy protocols were implemented when selecting smart cities challenge winners. “We strongly encourage you to require that the finalists commit to the preparation of privacy impact and threat risk assessments at the design stage and also commit to applying any resulting recommendations at the implementation stage,” said the joint letter, dated Tuesday and co-signed by privacy commissioners across the country. The federal government launched the smart cities...
Trade committee recommends sales tax for foreign ‘intangible products’
telecom | 04/27/2018 4:54 pm EDT
The House standing committee on international trade is calling on the government to implement sales taxes on “intangible products” sold by foreign companies, improve rural internet access and...
Don’t allow social media data use by political parties: professor
Media | 04/27/2018 4:11 pm EDT
OTTAWA — There is no reason for political parties to be using social...
AggregateIQ denies whistleblower claims to ethics committee
telecom | 04/24/2018 5:39 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The heads of West Coast-based software developer AggregateIQ...
Rogers email users mad about missing data mining opt-out
Media | 04/20/2018 5:18 pm EDT
Rogers Communications Inc. customers spoke out on social media this week...
MPs unsatisfied with Facebook testimony, mull further regulations
Media | 04/19/2018 4:51 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Testimony from Facebook Inc. representatives at the House ethics committee Thursday left some MPs frustrated by answers to a range of issues, including the kind of...
Facebook data leak could affect Canadian elections: Therrien
Media | 04/17/2018 5:03 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Canada’s privacy commissioner told the House of Commons ethics...
Anne Bertrand named ad hoc privacy commish
Media | 04/16/2018 2:17 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has named Anne Bertrand, the former privacy commissioner for...
OPC joins B.C. privacy commish in investigation of West Coast data company
telecom | 04/06/2018 1:47 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) will participate in an investigation into the activities of AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd. according to a post on its website on Thursday....
Data of over 600K Canadians swept up in Facebook data scandal
Media | 04/04/2018 6:34 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. released its estimates of how many people were affected by...
Data breach notification rules coming Nov. 1
Media | 04/04/2018 1:41 pm EDT
The federal government has announced that mandatory breach notification rules found in the 2015 Digital Privacy Act will come into force Nov. 1 this year, according to an order-in-council dated March 26. As originally reported...
Facebook talks election security after tough week
Media | 03/29/2018 5:52 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. announced a series of new measures to harden the platform against misinformation Thursday, saying it has needed to ban a Macedonia-based ring spreading fake news during the late 2017 Alabama senate race, and will now...
NDP targets net neutrality, data and privacy rights in new motion
telecom | 03/28/2018 7:21 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Members of the federal NDP introduced a sweeping motion...
Negative views of Facebook up after data scandal: Angus Reid
telecom | 03/26/2018 5:10 pm EDT
Over the last month, the number of people who hold an unfavourable public...
Ontario private sector data law timely: MPPs
telecom | 03/23/2018 5:20 pm EDT
An Ontario lawmaker is pushing for consent-based privacy legislation focused on governing the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by the private sector. On Wednesday, the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), or Bill 14, had its first reading in the province’s legislature. Sponsor and Liberal member of provincial parliament Harinder Takhar said it would be the province’s own privacy law for the private sector. “We are lagging behind provinces such as British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec in creating provincial legislation to regulate the collection, use and...
Questions remain about CSE public info use, Cambridge Analytica
Media | 03/23/2018 10:46 am EDT
OTTAWA — Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan couldn’t tell MPs or reporters...
OPC investigating Facebook as gov’t responds to privacy concerns
Media | 03/21/2018 6:20 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Revelations over the weekend that Facebook Inc. data was used...
OPC to look into Cambridge Analytica revelations
Media | 03/19/2018 6:06 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) is looking into reports data of 50 million Facebook Inc....
More emphasis on transparency needed in PIPEDA: professor
telecom | 03/09/2018 4:52 pm EST
OTTAWA — Any amendments to Canada’s privacy law for the private sector...
OPC says it’s ‘at a loss’ over exclusion from CSE oversight
Media | 03/08/2018 3:41 pm EST
The privacy commissioner is calling for his office to be included in Bill C-59’s new review process for the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), according to a...
House ethics committee backs right to be forgotten in Canada
Media | 03/01/2018 5:23 pm EST
The government should consider including frameworks for a right to erasure...
Privacy protections ‘implicit’ in C-59: CSE
telecom | 02/14/2018 3:49 pm EST
OTTAWA — Representatives from the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), when asked Tuesday about...
High fees, lack of understanding limit personal info access: Citizen Lab
telecom | 02/12/2018 5:38 pm EST
Financial barriers and complex responses still deter individuals from...
C-59 CSE hacking powers could put Canadians at risk: OpenMedia
telecom | 02/09/2018 2:06 pm EST
OTTAWA — The Canadian Security Establishment (CSE) could inadvertently be...
CRTC asks digital giants for info, promises confidentiality
Media | 02/05/2018 2:02 pm EST
As part of its government-ordered proceeding on future content distribution models, the CRTC is asking a number of companies — including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Netflix Inc. — for information...
OPC says search engine de-indexing right exists in Canada
telecom | 01/26/2018 5:08 pm EST
Canadians have the right to ask search engines to remove links to results...
10M Canadians affected by cybercrime in 2017: Symantec report
telecom | 01/24/2018 5:37 pm EST
Within the last year, 10.14 million Canadians were affected by cybercrime,...
‘Worrying’ trend of data breaches ‘must stop’: NDP
telecom | 01/24/2018 5:21 pm EST
In a statement on Tuesday, the same day that BCE Inc. reported a breach affecting up to 100,000 customers, the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) Public Safety Critic Matthew Dubé said that expecting...
Up to 100K customers potentially affected by Bell data breach
telecom | 01/23/2018 6:22 pm EST
BCE Inc. has reported a second data breach in less than twelve months, sending emails to customers Tuesday morning to inform them their information may have been compromised.
According to cybersecurity expert Imran Ahmad, a partner at law firm Miller Thomson LLP,...
Can telecoms cut through the blockchain hype?
telecom | 01/19/2018 3:38 pm EST
The federal government said Friday it is “experimenting” with blockchain technology to create a...
CSIS document flags less-effective encryption as issue for IoT
telecom | 01/16/2018 5:31 pm EST
Canada’s security agency is aware of the push for stronger encryption by...
Canadian IP, tech targets during gov’t travel: CSIS
telecom | 01/15/2018 1:48 pm EST
In an instructional guide released to government employees, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) recommended high levels of vigilance in protecting personal information during international travel. Originally...
As programmatic ads grow, GDPR could pose a problem: expert
telecom | 01/04/2018 6:16 pm EST
Automatic, data-based advertising has grown significantly over the years...
Telecom criticized for continuous credit checks
telecom | 12/21/2017 11:27 am EST
In a report released on Wednesday by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), a Canadian telecom was deemed in violation of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) after repeatedly requesting a customer’s credit history for...
House committee backs stricter border device search rules
telecom | 12/15/2017 4:06 pm EST
A parliamentary ethics committee is recommending the government enact into...
Over 800K Canadians involved in Uber hack
telecom | 12/12/2017 6:30 pm EST
The Canadian division of Uber Technologies Inc. said about 815,000 riders and drivers in Canada were...
OPC formally investigating Uber after data breach
telecom | 12/11/2017 4:34 pm EST
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has confirmed in an email that the privacy...
SCC text message ruling clarifies privacy in digital communications
telecom | 12/08/2017 10:32 am EST
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada said Friday that a sender of a text...
CSE activities under C-59 may weaken encryption tools: CCLA
telecom | 12/07/2017 5:24 pm EST
OTTAWA — Parliamentarians debating Bill C-59 will have to come to grips...
Under C-59, unauthorized data collection still a risk: professor
telecom | 12/06/2017 4:14 pm EST
OTTAWA — On Tuesday morning, University of Ottawa law professor Craig...
Committee tells Equifax compensation meagre after breach
telecom | 12/05/2017 12:47 pm EST
OTTAWA — The House of Commons’ ethics committee did not mince words...
Goodale offers telecoms a hand in network security, SS7
telecom | 11/24/2017 5:53 pm EST
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the country’s telecoms can...
OPC looking into Uber data breach
telecom | 11/22/2017 4:08 pm EST
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has requested a written breach report from ride-sharing app maker Uber Technologies Inc., it confirmed in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
The OPC said it expects that Uber will “provide details about how the breach happened and about the impact on Canadians,” in the written report.
The request comes after Uber announced the details of a Oct. 2016 information breach affecting 57 million Uber users in a blog post on Tuesday. The ride-sharing company could not...