CIPPIC files complaint about privacy impacts of foreign outsourcing

CIPPIC has asked the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to investigate and report on canada.com's compliance with PIPEDA, and in so doing to clarify legal requirements for notice and consent in situations involving outsourcing of core business operations to a US-based company.  Earlier this year, canada.com outsourced its email service operations to US-based Velocity Services Inc., raising concerns about the consequent increased risk of surreptitious US government access to the email communications of canada.com subscribers.  CIPPIC has asked the Privacy Commissioner to investigate and report on whether Canadian subscribers of canada.com email services receive a "comparable level of protection" of their personal data from US-based providers as compared to Canadian providers.