PitbLAWg may be AWOL on January 18, 2012.
In a USA Today article “TwitPic, WordPress to go dark for online SOPA protest” Yamiche Alcindor reported that WordPress, along with other websites will not available on Wednesday January 18, 2012 to protest the proposed US legislation, Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act.
WordPress is the host site for PitbLAWg. If WordPress is not available then PitbLAWg will not be online for the day. However, we expect that WordPress and PitbLAWg with be back up and running on Thursday January 19th.
PitbLAWg takes no position on the proposed legislation or on the blackout. Thanks for following PitbLAWg and we hope to see you back on January 19th.
Toyota advertising case raises privacy issues
In 2009, a woman initiated a lawsuit against a Californian advertising firm and Toyota U.S.A. because of an aggressive advertising campaign that she claimed was designed to make individuals believe they were being stalked by a criminal (which, in fact, turned out to be fictitious). While the charges are now being dealt with by the Los Angeles Superior Court the case raises issues in respect of the application of privacy principles here in Canada.
In 2008, Toyota Matrix advertised the “Your Other You” campaign which targeted young males. It encouraged individuals to provide someone else’s personal information, who would then receive an invitation to a fake personality test. What really happened was, the “victim” ended up receiving numerous disturbing emails from an imaginary soccer hooligan with a pitbull named Trigger. This impersonator claimed to be on their way to the victim’s house, who had no idea it was a hoax. In order to promote the advertising campaign, a fake social networking account for the stalker was even set up.
How would a similar case play out here in Canada? Under the PIPEDA framework , there would possibly be a violation of the law because of the alleged collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent. Further, PIPEDA’s requirement that the “identified purposes” of any collection, use or disclosure of personal information would not likely met. Finally, the reasonableness test, enshrined in PIPEDA, would probably be violated. In short, the facts pertaining to the case could put the relevant parties in the crosshairs of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and courts. As a result, the case should serve as a warning to advertising agencies to ensure that privacy law considerations are thoroughly canvassed with legal counsel before initiating campaigns involving personal information – especially where people are submitting friends’ data.
Two Minutes for Unnecessary Tweeting
The NHL is preparing to drop the puck on a league-wide Social Media Policy.
CBC reports the policy will include “a social media blackout window before, during and after games, as well as during practice and any other team obligations”.
Like any other legal document, the impact of the NHL’s Social Media Policy will depend on its more minute details, such as the duration of its blackout windows, and what constitutes “any other team obligation”.
You might be wondering why it’s taken the NHL so long to develop a Social Media Policy, especially given the highly publicized headaches social media has caused other professional sporting leagues.
The reality is that, while an employer might feel entitled to control what its employees are saying on social media, and when they say it, restricting employees’ social media usage creates a handful of legal issues in areas such as labour and employment law, intellectual property law and privacy law (to name a few). Most fundamentally, any restriction on employees’ social media usage constitutes a restriction on expression rights, which are given constitutional protection by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
All of which is to say that implementing a Social Media Policy requires a heck of a lot of legal stickhandling. At Pitblado Law, we understand Social Media Policies, and we’d be happy to help your organization draw up its own social media gameplan.
If you have any questions or if you would like assistance, please contact me via email at buck@pitblado.com.
Are you a spammer? What you need to know about Canada’s new anti-spam law
Tired of reading? How about a video to help you learn about Canada’s new anti-spam law? I’m delighted to let you know about a cool feature on Pitblado’s new website called the “Whiteboard Sessions”, which are vlogs (or video blogs). We’ve just posted a 3 minute vlog of mine entitled “Are you a spammer?“, wherein I discuss:
- highlights of the new law
- why you should care
- an overview of the rules
- penalties for non-compliance; and
- proactive tips to help comply with the law
To watch “Are you a spammer?” please click here>>
Privacy Commissioner releases report on online tracking, profiling and targeting, and cloud computing
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has just released the final report of her Office’s consultations on the online tracking, profiling and targeting of consumers by marketers and other businesses. “Most people have no idea about the rich trail of data they leave behind when they browse the Internet, use social networking sites, or engage the geo-location functions of their mobile devices,” the Commissioner observed. Organizations that track the online activities of Canadians must be more upfront about their practices, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has concluded… “it comes down to meaningful consent, which entails informed consent”.
Fines needed to help stem growing data breaches, Privacy Commissioner says
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has called for legislation empowering her to impose substantial fines against major corporations that fail to adequately protect Canadians’ personal information from preventable breaches.
“I am deeply troubled by the large number of major breaches we are seeing, including serious incidents in recent weeks that have affected hundreds of thousands of Canadians,’’ Jennifer Stoddart said in a speech today at the Canada 3.0 forum in Stratford, Ont. “It seems to me that it’s time to begin imposing fines – significant, attention-getting fines – on companies when poor privacy and security practices lead to breaches.’’
To learn more, read the complete news release.
The case against Big Brother at work
Here’s a good article in the Globe & Mail’s Report on Business about the thorny issue of workplace monitoring. As I’m quoted by the Globe & Mail, “I recognize employers have risks and obligations to manage data, but on the other hand going to a more Big Brother approach isn’t the answer. And the privacy commissioner and the courts would agree with that.” Read the full article here>
Supreme Court of Canada releases electric meter privacy decision
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released an important decision today that considered whether an individual home owner had a reasonable expectation of privacy in electric meter data.
The police had asked a local utility company to attach a digital recording ammeter (DRA) to the electric meter on a home in order to monitor electrical usage. The data gleaned from the DRA and from other sources was then used to obtain a warrant to search the home. The search resulted in exposing a marijuana grow op. The defence argued that the installation of the DRA infringed the privacy rights of the accused to be secure against unreasonable search contained in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
A critical factual consideration, on which much of the disagreement in the case turned, was the degree to which the use of DRA technology reveals private information. The SCC ultimately decided that DRA technology merely indicates electricity use, not what the electricity was used for, so it was a reasonable loss of privacy.
Let’s talk privacy and access to information
CJOB|680′s Geoff Currier recently asked me to participate in his live radio program called “The Nighthawk”. Geoff and callers raised a number of issues related to privacy and access to information law including the following question that Geoff asked… “Once I go on Twitter/Facebook, do I automatically surrender my privacy rights? In Vancouver wherein an alleged gang rape and some photos of the victim were posted online and distributed out there…what does our law say about that? You are standing on Portage & Main and you kiss your wife and I happen to take a photograph of that… is that an invasion of your privacy?” To hear the answer to this and other questions please listen to the live broadcast recording here>>.
Thanks to Geoff Currier and CJOB|680 for the invitation to participate in the program.
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner tables Annual Report on PIPEDA
Earlier today, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, submitted to Parliament the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s Annual Report on PIPEDA for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2009.
As the Commissioner notes, “the dominant theme of [the OPC's] work in 2009 was the protection of privacy in an increasingly online, borderless world. A case in point was the investigation that resulted in more public attention than any other in [the OPC's] history: Facebook.” The Commissioner notes two key issues, namely, Data without borders and Risks remaining in the wake of mortgage broker breaches.
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Authors
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Mark Wallace
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Philip Watts
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Brant Harvey
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Caroline Kiva
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Adam Herstein
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Andrew Buck
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Benjamin Hecht
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Bradley Madison
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Rob Giesbrecht
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Ned Brown
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Candace Everard Grammond
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Lori Dobbie
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Darryl Antel
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Andrew Ogaranko
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Michael Puchniak
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Bill Gardner
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Tracey Epp
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Richard Buchwald
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Ron Greasley
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Administrator
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Douglas G. Ward, Q.C.
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Brian Bowman
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Courtney Chambers
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Bruce King
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newmandavidg
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