Articles 2022

The OBA hosted another Privacy Summit in 2019. This article provides an overview of the developments in privacy jurisprudence, as discussed during a 3-member panel presentation at the Summit.

Smart city initiatives provide a welcome opportunity for public engagement about data governance and privacy in Ontario and beyond.

Why did the Ontario Superior Court of Justice refuse to certify the Casino Rama privacy breach class action, but then certified the Bell Mobility class action less than a week later? This piece offers a few theories explaining the opposing outcomes.

Facebook discovered a data breach in 2013 due to the inadvertent interaction between two of its features. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada (“Commissioner”) investigated the cause and aftermath of the breach and decided that the remedial measures Facebook implemented following this breach was sufficient. Would that decision be upheld by a Court in a claim for negligence? What additional but practical technical measures could Facebook have implemented to avoid being found negligent?

An overview of the “Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL): A Joint Presentation on Compliance and Enforcement” program hosted by the Ontario Bar Association in November 2018.

How can organizations ensure that they are obtaining meaningful consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information? The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada weighs in with a guidance document outlining guiding principles and a checklist of "Must-do" and "Should-do" items.

While facial recognition technology is increasingly prevalent in our day-to-day lives, the authors highlight concerns regarding compliance with applicable privacy laws.

All organizations, large or small, are prone to privacy breaches, the cost of which can cripple an organization that is not prepared to handle such threats. No organization is immune, but every organization can mitigate the risks.

With the advent of the GDPR and the amendments to PIPEDA, data breach response plans are no longer optional – they are mandatory - and a misstep could be costly.

Report from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada sheds light on the limits that Canadian privacy regulators can impose on the use of publicly available personal information on social networking platforms.