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(May 21, 2020) I’ve often written in this space about how, in Canada, regulators other than the privacy commissioners could play an impactful role in helping to protect and promote the privacy rights of Canadians. After all, in the United States, they don’t have any privacy commissioners at all, and yet, through various enforcement mechanisms, organizations can be held accountable. Well, it seems someone at the Competition Bureau caught on to this idea. The big news is that the bureau has levied a $9 million ... Read More

(May 21, 2020) Greetings from Brussels! You could be forgiven for thinking that nothing of importance is going on in the world outside the confines of the pandemic as it dominates every facet of our reality. However, within the EU and U.K. political spheres, there remains the other equally compelling challenge at hand, that of Brexit. Recent accounts from the negotiation table are not encouraging. A third round of videoconference talks this last week between the EU and the U.K. teams on the post-Brexit relati... Read More

(May 21, 2020) Kia ora koutou, Since my last introduction, in which I signaled that New Zealand was slightly relaxing its national lockdown (from alert level 4 to alert level 3), we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy a further relaxation of our COVID-19 response state. As of Wednesday last week, NZ has been at alert level 2, which has allowed for a significant return to “normal life.” Restaurants and retailers have begun trading again, families can reunite, and we can resume domestic travel. This is a privileged p... Read More

(May 21, 2020) Competition Bureau Canada announced Facebook agreed to pay a $9 million penalty to settle the bureau's investigations into the company's privacy practices. In this piece for Privacy Perspectives, nNovation Counsel Constantine Karbaliotis, CIPP/C, CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM, CIPT, FIP, looks at what the settlement may mean for Canadian regulatory actions going forward.Full Story Karbaliotis also examines how Facebook's settlement with Competition Bureau Canada may impact the recommendations set forth... Read More

(May 21, 2020) Now that Facebook’s settlement with the Competition Bureau Canada has been published, it is interesting to consider how this could impact other regulatory actions Facebook is dealing with in Canada with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. The settlement is quite short but has some interesting implications. First, it expressly states that Facebook’s agreement does not constitute an admission of guilt under the Competition Act or any other law, so this settlement doesn’t preclude F... Read More

(May 21, 2020) The Irish Health Service Executive is suspending its practice of informing employers of COVID-19 test results and is seeking guidance from the Data Protection Commission, RTÉ News reports. The HSE said it would consider notifying an employer before an employee if "it was considered essential for the public health good." Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan called the practice a "breach of confidentiality." The DPC confirmed it received several complaints.Full Story... Read More

(May 21, 2020) The Norwegian data protection authority, Datatilsynet, fined staffing and recruitment company JobTeam DKK 50,000 for not complying with EU General Data Protection Regulation requirements for processing personal data. The DPA said JobTeam deleted data after a request for the information was made and before the company responded. (Original post is in Danish.) Meanwhile, the Belgian Data Protection Authority fined an unnamed social network 50,000 euros in consultation with 23 DPAs from European cou... Read More

(May 21, 2020) The Canadian Security Intelligence Service warned the government that proposed changes to the Privacy Act could “significantly impact the work of national security and investigative agencies,” Global News reports. CSIS expressed concern about the law’s broad definition of "personal information" and said privacy law should ensure it is not required to disclose the foreign agencies it shares data with, adding the service should be exempt from informing individuals that their data has been breached... Read More