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.

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.

Tort law in Canada may take a new privacy-related turn if a recent press report is to be believed.

Canadian courts are increasingly taking up the subject of privacy and two judicial decisions issued this year in Alberta, Canada’s Wild Rose Country, do make you wonder how privacy law will evolve 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 […]

Last week saw a flurry of reports about the case of R. v. Cole. Cole is a decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal involving charges of possession of child pornography. Two reports in the National Post and Globe and Mail suggest this is a groundbreaking decision with significant implications for employers across Canada with […]

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 […]

When you consider the vast pool of personal health information that exists in electronic health record databases as well as the growing number of registries (both public and private) a large number of unanswered questions exist as to just what people, as patients and stakeholders, should accept as the “rules” surrounding such data.