News

The Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC), an alliance of the leading technology companies, academics and public interest groups united in the battle against computer spyware, today released its finalized spyware definitions. The ASC also released a new document for public comment, a Risk Model Description describing the sorts of behaviours anti-spyware companies evaluate in assessing the potential for any particular technology to be unwanted by consumers and so targeted by anti-spyware software. The comment period for this document closes November 27, 2005. - CIPPIC's Media Release

Members of UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, have voted 154

Responding to complaints under PIPEDA about a bank's practice of outsourcing customer data to a US firm, thus exposing the data to covert FBI investigations under the USA PATRIOT Act, the federal Assistant Privacy Commissioner found that the Bank's practice did not violate PIPEDA. Specifically, she found "that the [PIPED] Act cannot prevent U.S. authorities from lawfully accessing the personal information of Canadians held by organizations in Canada or in the United States, nor can it force Canadian companies to stop outsourcing to foreign-based service providers. What the Act does demand is that organizations be transparent about their personal information handling practices and protect customer personal information in the hands of foreign-based third-party service providers to the extent possible by contractual means." CIPPIC info on PATRIOT Act (scroll down)

The federal Privacy Commissioner tabled two Annual Reports in Parliament today: one on the public sector Privacy Act and the other on the private sector Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA"). The Commissioner calls for reforms to the Privacy Act, and focuses on a number of issues arising under PIPEDA, including advances in surveillance and data-handling technologies, market forces driving companies to collect and use more personal information, and the transborder flow of personal information.