Privacy & Data Management Blog

Canada’s Competition Bureau determined Facebook Inc. made false or misleading claims about the privacy of Canadians’ personal information on Facebook and Messenger. Facebook Inc. will pay a $9 million penalty in a settlement as a result, and pay an additional $500,000 for investigation costs.

This settlement is an important indicator of the shift that Canada’s ...

Provincial health orders, guidance and physical distancing measures in response to COVID-19 have changed the way Canadians are working and studying. Organizations are suddenly more reliant on technical tools and approaches to doing business which have not all been fully vetted for privacy and security.

Over the past few weeks, Canadian privacy commissioners have made ...

The B.C. government has opened the “world” of connectivity and communication software tools and applications not previously available to public bodies because they stored or permitted access to personal information outside of Canada.

To assist public bodies coping with certain challenges associated with COVID-19, the B.C. government has issued a ministerial ...

Certainly precautions considering the health of our friends, families and co-workers are foremost in our minds at this challenging time. While our lives and workplaces are disrupted in various ways, we should still be keeping privacy and security in mind.

Cyber-Safety

We are getting reports that online threats are higher than normal. When we are distracted, it is easier to ...

Canada’s Competition Bureau is making a shift towards enforcement in aspects of the digital economy. One way it is refocusing its work relates to policing false or misleading statements about the type of data organizations collect, why they collect it, and how they will use, maintain and erase it. The Bureau has substantial enforcement powers under the Competition Act to ...

The new Mandate Letter issued to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (“Letter”) includes a number of initiatives and stated priorities for the Government of Canada. These signal changes that we can anticipate to Canada’s privacy laws and how they will be enforced. Overall, individual rights will be strengthened and organizations will have more ...

The federal and B.C. privacy commissioners recently released a joint investigative report into AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd. (AIQ), a B.C. based company that specializes in data related services for political campaigns. The commissioners found breaches regarding consent and data security failures which required AIQ to make changes to the way they collect, manage ...

In an Announcement this week, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has put “on hold” any changes in approach for cross-border data flows of personal information, stating “its guidelines for processing personal data across borders will remain unchanged under the current law.”

What this means is the OPC does not interpret the Personal Information ...

The massive data breach involving Desjardins Group and around 2.7 million people announced on June 20 is an illustration of how vulnerable organizations can be to the acts of rogue employees with access to information systems.

Security breaches happen and could be costly to an organization and its reputation. Could it be worse? 

Organizations are required to implement ...

It looks like Canada’s privacy laws might be getting a face-lift.

In announcing the principles behind the development of a new “Digital Charter”, the federal government has committed to reforming Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Further consultation and the development of legislative language is yet to come ...