Recent Articles

CBSA opens lawyer's mail

January 06, 2009 02:23

Cyndee Cherniak, at Trade Lawyers Blog, reports on receiving a peice of mail addressed to her -- clearly a lawyer -- that had been opened and "inspected" by the Canada Border Services Agency. She is understandably angry. See: BEWARE - Canada Border Services Agency WILL Read Lawyer's Mail. This is a...

The Canadian Privacy Law Blog is Five!

January 03, 2009 14:33

Five years ago, on January 2, 2004, a new age of privacy was creeping across Canada and this blog was born. The day before, at the stroke of midnight, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) had come fully into force. The Alberta and British Columbia Personal...

Privacy commissioner urged to probe Tory eavesdropping

January 03, 2009 13:59

This may be a legitimate complaint, but a futile one under the Privacy Act: TheStar.com Canada Privacy commissioner urged to probe Tory eavesdropping Dec 03, 2008 03:18 PM OTTAWA — A public interest researcher has filed a formal complaint with Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, charging top p...

Canada's Privacy Commissioner Launches 6th Annual Privacy Research Contributions Program

January 03, 2009 13:59

The Commissioner has launched the sixth year of the research contributions program. From the Government of Canada website: Canada's Privacy Commissioner Launches 6th Annual Privacy Research Contributions Program Ottawa, December 1, 2008 — The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) today ...

Federal Commissioner tables annual report on Privacy Act

January 03, 2009 13:59

The Federal Privacy Commissioner has today tabled her annual report on the Privacy Act. And she isn't happy with how certain government departments handle personal information: News Release: Privacy issues given short shrift in passport operations and tribunal Internet postings, Commissioner says...

Collection of Driver’s Licence Numbers Under Private Sector Privacy Legislation

January 03, 2009 13:59

The Canadian, Alberta and British Columbia Privacy Commissioners have today jointly released a guidance document on the collection of drivers' license information by retailers. It's here: Collection of Driver’s Licence Numbers Under Private Sector Privacy Legislation - Privacy Commissioner of C...

Nova Scotia startup seeks to build on privacy law advantage

January 03, 2009 13:59

A client company, Bastionhost Ltd., held a mini-summit earlier this week seeking to expand its vision of building data centres in Nova Scotia. A key part of its value proposition is the regulatory climate in Canada, paticularly its privacy laws that are deemed adequate under European Data...

Legal ethics and metadata, 2008 edition

January 03, 2009 13:59

In Febrauary of '06, I linked to a post by Jim Calloway on Metadata (Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog: The Mysteries (and Magic) of Metadata). Jim just wrote to tell me he's posted an update with more recent authority on legal ethics and metadata: Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog: The...

Canada steps back from giving bulk "secure" drivers license data to US

January 03, 2009 13:59

According to the Canadian Press, Ottawa has quietly shelved plans that would have provided American authorities with personal information in bulk about the holders of so-called secure (read: chipped) drivers' licenses. The MOU with the American authorities would allegedly limit them to using it for...

Log retention initiatives

January 03, 2009 13:59

Just posted on Slaw: Slaw: Log retention initiatives I wrote two weeks ago about privacy issues related to the log files that are created and retained by internet companies. The moral of that story was that there is a significant amount of information that is collected in these logs and when they...