News

  • Private Member Bill Seeks to Bring Long Overdue Privacy Protections for Canadians
    - 2013-02-27 -

    CIPPIC welcomed the announcement of private member's Bill C-475, which proposed amendments to Canada’s federal privacy legislation, PIPEDA. The proposals will bring long overdue privacy protections for Canadians, including a comprehensive data breach notification regime and, critically, much needed enforcement powers for Canada’s privacy laws. A long-enduring and central gap in Canada’s privacy protections is the ongoing inability of the Privacy Commissioner to force non-compliant organizations to meet their privacy obligations. Even as our Courts, our provincial legislatures, and most of our international counterparts have recognized the increasing need to protect privacy in a digital era, our federal privacy regime remains toothless and our federal Privacy Commissioner lacks the basic power to enforce her own compliance orders. 

    In addition, the lack of a comprehensive data breach notification regime puts Canadians personal information at great risk. Experience from jurisdictions around the world has demonstrated that a legal obligation to notify individuals when their data has been put at risk is an essential component of any privacy protection regime. Not only does this notification requirement provide an opportunity for individuals to take protective measures against privacy harms ranging from identity theft to great embarrassment, but it also provides a poignant incentive for organizations to put in place the practical and technical mechanisms necessary to avoid such breaches in the first place.

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  • Be our 2013 Google Policy Fellow!
    - 2013-02-22 -

    CIPPIC is pleased to announce that, for the fifth year in a row, we will be hosting a Google Policy Fellow this summer. The Google Policy Fellow will join our Summer Internship Program and work closely with CIPPIC staff on a range of dynamic, cutting edge law & technology issues as we seek to further our mandate. This mandate regularly takes us before various policy- and law-making forums, including parliamentary committees, regulatory bodies, all levels of court and various international fora as we seek to advocate in the public interest on issues arising at the intersection of law and technology. It additionally includes a public education and engagement component, as we seek to ensure the public is aware of issues that may effect their daily digital lives. Substantively, CIPPIC advocacy covers a diverse range of digital rights/policy issues, including copyright, privacy/electronic surveillance, telecommunications regulation/net neutrality, online consumer protection, online speech, access to knowledge and more general Internet governance concerns.

    We involve our interns and policy fellows in all elements of our work. In addition, the policy fellow will enjoy our Summer Speaker Series, which brings leading experts in Canadian law & technology fields in to discuss various pressing issues with our students in a closed environment. See our annual bulletin for a list of past speakers, as well as a description of some of our recent work. Applications are due Friday, March 15, 2013. To apply, visit Google's Policy Fellowship interface. The fellowship will run from May 6 - July 15, 2013 (10 weeks), and is open to any law students or law graduate students.

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  • CIPPIC Granted Leave to Intervene in Voltage v. Doe
    - 2013-02-15 -

    CIPPIC has been granted leave to intervene in Voltage Pictures LLC v. Doe. Voltage has alleged that approximately 2000 unknown individuals, identified by IP address, have unlawfully downloaded movies and thereby infringed its copyright. Voltage subsequently filed a motion asking the court to order an Internet Service Provider, Teksavvy, to hand over the subscriber identities linked to those IP addresses. CIPPIC is now able to participate in that motion.

    CIPPIC asked to intervene in order to argue for the protection of Canadians' privacy, and to ensure that all procedural safeguards were respected. As part of its intervention CIPPIC will be allowed to challenge Voltage's evidence, and question whether it is robust enough to justify handing over customers' personal details. CIPPIC will also be allowed to introduce its own evidence, and to make arguments about the proper legal tests to follow in file-sharing lawsuits. We expect to provide evidence to court by the end of this month.

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  • CIPPIC appears at CRTC Wireless Consumer Protection Code Proceeding
    - 2013-02-12 -

    As part of ongoing proceedings set to establish a 'Wireless Bill of Rights' for customers of Canadian wireless services, the CRTC held a hearing seeking input on what protections should be included in such a document. CIPPIC, appearing alongside its client in the proceeding, OpenMedia.ca, called on the CRTC to take strong steps towards alleviating growing customer frustration with a highly concentrated and difficult to navigate mobile service landscape. This requires, CIPPIC argued, simplified and standardized point of sale information on the nature and cost of services. It also requires that mobile service providers deploy real-time usage management tools that help individuals avoid bill shock. This includes handset-based notifications that kick in as individuals approach their usage limits, as well as a customizable 'hard' notification that will temporarily cut off usage as individuals approach excessive usage fees ($50, for example).

    In addition, effective protections will lower switching costs that currently keep customers locked in to their plans long after their smartphone battery expires, long after their frustration with changing fees or inadequate customer service raises their level of frustration to new heights, long after the wireless market has evolved to offer cheaper and more responsive service offerings. Lock-in, which, uniquely in Canada, is typically for three year terms of service, is achieved by a combination of technical measures preventing an individual from using their handset with another service and hefty fees (which can amount to hundreds of dollars depending on how far the individual is into their contract) levied at individuals seeking to leave their contracts early.

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  • CIPPIC Participates in Office of the Information Commissioner ATI Consultation
    - 2013-01-31 -

    In response to the dramatically outdated nature of Canada's now 30 year old Access to Information Act, the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada has initiated an Open Dialogue Consultation on the need to modernize ATI. Building on submissions from fellow organizations such as BCFIPA, CIPPIC participated in the OIC's consultation, calling for the Access to Information Act to be modernized. Specific modernizations include reduced barriers to ATI requests, a 'digital first' response policy that should lower ATI response costs, and, importantly, exceptions should be narrowed and focused, and subject to a public interest override as well as the need to prove harm will result if information is not withheld. Too often are exceptions relied upon to obscure information that Canadians have a right to know.

    More generally, the right to information needs to be conceived in broader terms than reflected in the ATIA. It needs to be exercised more proactively if it is to be achieve its objective within the context of a democratic and technologically innovative society. While the current ATIA focuses on information responses to individual requests, it should additionally obligate periodic and proactive disclosure of important public information. This proactive publication obligation should extend to important data sets in the government's control, so that Canadians can fully benefit from data held and generated by their government. Government-held information is a national resource, generated by public officials in the course of carrying out their public mandates and, ultimately, paid for by public funds. The outdated nature of Canada's ATI regime has become a tangible obstacle to the ability of Canadians to fully benefit from this resource. It is now time to bring our right-to-information system forward into the twenty-first century. For more information visit: http://cippic.ca/open_governance.

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  • Join Us for the Summer! Seeking Applications for our Summer Internship Program
    - 2013-01-28 -

    CIPPIC is seeking applications for our Summer Internship Program. Summer interns work closely with CIPPIC staff on dynamic and cutting edge issues that arise at the intersection of law & technology. Our advocacy efforts regularly take us before Parliamentary, regulatory and quasi-judicial bodies, the production of research papers, and input into several domestic and international policy-making processes. In addition, in furthering our public outreach mandate, CIPPIC produces a diverse range of media that seek to engage the public on law and technology policy while providing high quality information resources on relevant issues. CIPPIC's advocacy covers several areas of law and policy, including copyright, privacy/electronic surveillance, telecommunications regulation/net neutrality, online consumer protection, online speech, access to knowledge and other digital rights.

    In addition, CIPPIC interns benefit from our Summer Speaker Series, which lets interns benefit directly from the experience of premier experts on various Canadian law & technology issues. Applications are due Friday, February 22, 2013. Applications are open to any current law or law graduate students (FR). Internships will run from May 6-July 26, 2013.

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  • Happy Data Privacy/Protection Day!
    - 2013-01-28 -

    Data Privacy Day and its European counterpart, Data Protection Day, commemorates the signing of the world's first international treaty on data protection -- the Council of Europe's Convention 108. Data protection is rapidly becoming an international norm, as recent developments have brought the number of countries with data protection legislation to 89, globally. Additionally, 2012 saw an unprecedented commitment by lawmakers in one of the largest data markets -- the United States, a long-time adherence of a sectoral approach to privacy protection -- committing to the enactment of data protection laws. Our courts have similarly advanced the cause of privacy with landmark decisions that recognized the right to anonymity in judicial proceedings, a constitutional right to individual notification when police intercept communications in an emergency, and the right to privacy in our work computers. In addition, our Federal Privacy Commissioner released a sweeping (but yet to be enforced) Finding on the privacy practices of a youth-based social networking site, Nexopia. Finally, advances in transparency have helped us better understand how our information is being accessed by the government, as more organizations began publishing statistics on government access, and Google, who pioneered the transparency reporting model, has increased the scope of their own reports so that the public can better assess the nature of government requests.

    At the same time, the challenges have never been greater with online surveillance legislation, long over-due updates to our federal privacy statutes (PIPEDA and the Privacy Act) still nowhere in sight, and legislative initiatives that will allow our online service providers to hand over our data to litigants and copyright trolls alike -- all on the horizon. More after the jump.

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  • Proposed Shaw/Rogers Transaction Indicative of Broken Spectrum Policy
    - 2013-01-18 -

    CIPPIC has signed on to a letter sent by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre to Industry Canada in protest of an announced spectrum transfer that demonstrates the broken nature of Canada's spectrum policy approach. Last week, Shaw announced its intention to provide Rogers the option to purchase its entire stock of AWS spectrum holdings as part of a comprehensive deal that involves a number of broadcast holdings. While the overall deal is salted to go through soon, Rogers will be prevented from exercising its spectrum purchasing option until 2014. The reason for this is that Shaw's $189 million worth of spectrum, acquired during the 2008 AWS spectrum auction, is subject to set-aside limitations aimed at preserving bands of spectrum for new market entrants. The imposition of this set-aside was animated by the need to instil some competition into Canada's highly concentrated mobile wireless market -- a market which, at the time, was exclusively controlled by three providers: TELUS, Bell and Rogers. It was this set-aside that led to the creation of new entrants such as Mobilicity and WIND by reserving a significant chunk of spectrum for new entrants. Absent such restrictions, the concern is that incumbents will pay well above market value for spectrum solely for the purpose of locking competitors out by denying them access to the lifeblood of any wireless network -- spectrum. The set-aside not only shielded spectrum blocks from incumbent bidding during the 2008 auction itself, but also prevented those bands from reverting to any incumbent for five years.

    Now Shaw, who purchased its spectrum holdings in 2008 as a non-incumbent and held onto them for 4 plus years without using any of it, seeks to sell it back to an incumbent, likely at a profit. With the 2014 AWS set-aside expiration looming and limited prospects for significant expansion of new entrant holdings in the upcoming lucrative 700 Mhz auction, there is a tangible risk that more of the AWS spectrum will follow Shaw's lead and make its way back to the incumbent fold. If Industry Canada wishes to preserve the underlying objective of the initial set-aside, it needs to block this transfer.

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  • CIPPIC Asks to Intervene in Voltage v. Doe, Push Back Hearing Date
    - 2013-01-11 -

    Update: Adjournment granted. On January 14, 2013, the Federal Court agreed to adjourn the hearing of Voltage's motion to disclose the identities of TekSavvy subscribers until after a determination of CIPPPIC's motion to intervene.

    The Federal Court case of Voltage Pictures LLC. v Doe (Court File No. T-2058-12) signals the return of file-sharing lawsuits to Canada. Voltage alleges that unnamed defendants, identified by IP Address, have downloaded its films unlawfully via bittorrent. Voltage has filed a motion asking the Court to order Teksavvy, an Internet Service Provider, to disclose records that will enable it to identify the individuals associated with those IP Addresses. CIPPIC has filed a motion to intervene in Voltage's request to compel TekSavvy to identify those individuals. Voltage’s motion to compel TekSavvy to identify its subscribers is set down to be heard on Monday, January 14th. CIPPIC has written a letter to the Court asking that Voltage's motion not be heard until after the Court has had an opportunity to rule on CIPPIC's intervention application.

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  • When Are Police Suspicions Reasonable? CIPPIC Intervenes at the Supreme Court
    - 2013-01-07 -

    UPDATE: These hearings will be live streamed beginning at 9:30 a.m. on January 22, 2012

    CIPPIC has filed its intervention in two joint appeals before the Supreme Court of Canada: Chehil v. Her Majesty the Queen, S.C.C. File No. 34524 and MacKenzie v. Her Majesty the Queen, Supreme Court File No. 34397. These appeals call on our highest court to clarify the parameters of what constitutes a 'reasonable suspicion'. The reasonable suspicion standard forms the basis of an increasing panoply of state surveillance powers. The crown is seeking a 'reasonable suspicion' standard that effectively rubber stamps law enforcement 'intuition'. If adopted, courts will need to defer to law enforcement 'expertise' in assessing whether suspicions are reasonable. In addition, police will be able to systematically apply 'suspicious' profiles to mine data repositories and invade the privacy of many Canadians.

    The cases under appeal involve sniffer dogs. Individuals were deemed 'suspicious' on the basis of a confluence of innocuous factors such as: travelling from known drug centres (Vancouver and Calgary, respectively), purchasing a last minute ticket (Chehil), travelling two kilometres above the speed limit (MacKenzie), checking just one bag on a flight (Chehil), appearing nervous (MacKenzie) and buying a plane ticket with cash (Chehil). The ultimate constituent elements of this standard will have far-reaching implications, as what is considered 'reasonably suspicious' will form the basis of many surveillance powers. Under Bill C-30 alone, if it passes, the government will be able to force service providers to hand over cell phone location data, traffic data (such as what websites you visit), and interaction data (such as who you speak to or who you interact with online) if they are able to convince a judge that they have 'reasonable suspicion'. For more, see https://cippic.ca/sniffer_dogs.

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