Since the FACTA posts on this blog have generated a lot of traffic, I thought I’d pass along some information from my good friend Peter McLaughlin in Morrison Foerster’s New York office. It appears the IRS have decided to shift the implementation date for FATCA from 31 December 2013 to 1 July 2014. Not a […]
I recently came across a calculator while reading a Financial Times article (registration required) on the surveillance of consumers. It shows just how much marketers value our personal data – apparently it’s just pennies and we don’t even have those in Canada anymore. This 2010 Forbes article talks about the monetization of personal data and […]
I’ve written about FATCA before, here and here, with respect to the privacy law implications of this American tax compliance initiative. However, I was recently presented with a letter on the subject that made me pause. A noted Canadian constitutional law expert has raised a rather interesting aspect and it seems what may get Canadian […]
How can employers use locational information without running afoul of data protection laws? No doubt the question will appear more prominently in queries to lawyers as we evolve into a more technologically mobile society but the first place it comes up is in the context of motor vehicle telematics. “Telematics” refers to the merger of […]
Ontario’s Court of Appeal has issued its decision in Jones v Tsige and the result recognizes a common law tort of invasion of privacy. More technically, the court recognized a “right of action for intrusion upon seclusion” – one of several aspects of privacy.
Under PIPEDA, “lawful authority” arises as a preliminary matter when an organization is approached for a request for personal information by a “government institution or part thereof”. While a “clarification” of “lawful authority” is one of the proposed amendments to PIPEDA, the issue is really about whether organizations should disclose to law enforcement authorities. While […]
There were a number of letters, news items and posts this past week about the new lawful access proposals before Canada’s Parliament. While the focus has been on telcos and the data they hold, it is important to note that there are also other “access” proposals – ones that significantly change the Personal Information Protection […]
It is somewhat fitting that Halloween and the anniversary of the enactment of the PATRIOT Act are close together. In Canada, the latter, which turned 10 last week, has come to embody fear about government access to personal information. The troubling part is that this fear may needlessly complicate life for everyone in this country.
The phrase “you are what you eat” popped into my head as I began this blog post. It might be better to say “you are what you consume” and truer words were never spoken when one considers technology, analytics, and the measurement of electricity consumption. New metering technology — labeled “smart grid” — and the privacy implications […]
There’s a reason why they are called “data protection” as opposed to “privacy” laws. In Canada, the privacy rights you have come from the Charter of Rights – our data protection laws provide rules principally as to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information with more than a passing nod to other topics such […]
