We've seen social media as a tool for social justice but its relationship with the law is challenging. Given the rapid growth of our interconnected world, few people would deny the role that social media plays - a repository of information, a driver of ideas and innovation, and increasingly a tool … [Read more...]
Court of Appeal says Police Can’t Climb Through Windows and Spy on You
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently held in its decision in R. v. White [2015] O.J. No. 3563 that police officers do not have unrestricted access to enter common areas in residential buildings to gather evidence against an individual. The police had suspected that Mr. White was dealing drugs … [Read more...]
Privacy Considerations for Families Involved with Child and Family Services
Parents involved with Child and Family Services (“the Director”) may not want extended family members, friends, and the general public to know. The Child, Youth, and Family Enhancement Act (“CYFEA”) is the legislation under which intervention services are provided by the Director in Alberta. CYFEA … [Read more...]
Bench Press 38-3: Supreme Court Finds PIPA Invalid
In a startling decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has found Alberta’s Personal Information Privacy Act to be unconstitutional and therefore invalid. The case involved persons who were photographed crossing a picket line. A nearby sign warned that the striking union might post the pictures on a … [Read more...]
Bench Press 37-5: Texting with Telus
Telus is unique among telecommunications companies in that it briefly stores electronic copies of all text messages sent or received by its subscribers. Police in Ontario obtained a warrant obliging Telus to hand over any stored copies of text messages sent or received by two of its subscribers on a … [Read more...]
Privacy and Cloud Computing
The term ‘cloud computing’ refers to the provision of services through websites available on the Internet. These services are typically on demand and scalable such that the user can expand her or his use of the services dramatically. Storing picture, emails or materials on the Internet is use of … [Read more...]
Further Resources on Privacy
Privacy means different things to different people around the world; what is considered private in one culture might not be in the next. However, the ability to choose when identity and personal information is revealed and when it’s not is a value all humans hold. In the digital age, this sense of … [Read more...]
Worried about Privacy in Canada?
The uproar that followed the federal government’s introduction of a bill about new powers to demand private information from Internet providers last spring led to the shelving of Bill C-30. But the government seems poised to bring back another form of the bill in the next few months. In the … [Read more...]
Protecting Your Personal Information When You Rent
When tenants apply to rent somewhere to live, they usually have to fill out long pages of information about themselves, and they often don’t question why or how the landlord is going to use the personal information that they are providing. Tenants should be concerned about protecting their personal … [Read more...]
Privacy Issues in Criminal Law
From almost the beginning of recorded history in England it had been recognized that “a man’s home is his castle” and accordingly, the Sovereign’s men could only enter if they had legal authority to do so. Over the centuries that authority evolved into the modern day search warrant. Canada’s … [Read more...]
