Privacy Law Commons^™

The United States Should Take A Page Out Of Canadian Law When It Comes To Privacy, Genetic And Otherwise, Ashley Rahaim

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Genetic information is intimate and telling data warranting privacy in public and private realms. The privacy protections offered in the United States and Canada vastly differ when it comes to genetic privacy. Search and seizure law mirrors the privacy gap in the countries, as well as their treatment of DNA database information.

This note explores the foreshadowing of the creation of genetic privacy laws and their varying levels of protection based on the way private information was treated by state actors through search and seizure caselaw, the creation of legal precedent, and the treatment of intimate personal data in the …

Reproductive Privacy In The World: Critical Examination Of June Medical Services, L.L.C. V. Russo And Buck V. Bell, Kumiko Kitaoka

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Using insights from Professor Stephen A. Simon’s Universal Rights and the Constitution, this Article argues that national courts should continue to assume an active role in the protection of privacy rights by giving due consideration to the nature of the privacy right in combination with the merits of the universal right theory. This Article then demonstrates that both foreign national courts and domestic state courts have recognized the right to procreate and key aspects of the right to abortion as fundamental rights.

Part II introduces the universal right theory, explaining why the theory is particularly relevant to the protection …

Responding To Deficiencies In The Architecture Of Privacy: Co-Regulation As The Path Forward For Data Protection On Social Networking Sites, Laurent Cre ́Peau

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Social Networking Sites like Facebook, Twitter and the like are a ubiquitous part of contemporary culture. Yet, as exemplified on numerous occasions, most recently in the Cambridge Analytica scandal that shook Facebook in 2018, these sites pose major concerns for personal data protection. Whereas self-regulation has characterized the general regulatory mindset since the early days of the Internet, it is no longer viable given the threat social media poses to user privacy. This article notes the deficiencies of self-regulatory models of privacy and contends jurisdictions like Canada should ensure they have strong data protection regulations to adequately protect the public. …

Revisiting The “Private Use Exception” To Canada’S Child Pornography Laws: Teenage Sexting, Sex-Positivity, Pleasure, And Control In The Digital Age, Lara Karaian, Dillon Brady

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In R v Sharpe, the Supreme Court of Canada read in a “private use exception” to the offence of possessing child pornography. The Court reasoned that youths’ self-created expressive material and private recordings of lawful sexual activity—created by, or depicting the accused and held by the accused exclusively for private use—would pose little or no risk to children and may in fact be of significance to adolescent self-fulfillment, self-actualization, sexual exploration, and identity. Fundamental changes in the technological, social, sexual, and legal landscape since Sharpe have resulted in a lack of clarity regarding the exception’s scope. Federal and provincial police …

Search Engines And The Right To Be Forgotten: Squaring The Remedy With Canadian Values On Personal Information Flow, Andrea Slane

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (“OPC”) recently proposed that Canada’s private sector privacy legislation should apply in modified form to search engines. The European Union (“EU”) has required search engines to comply with its private sector data protection regime since the much-debated case regarding Google Spain in 2014. The EU and Canadian data protection authorities characterize search engines as commercial business ventures that collect, process, and package information, regardless of the public nature of their sources. Yet both also acknowledge that search engines serve important public interests by facilitating users’ search for relevant information. This article considers …

Textual Privacy And Mobile Information, Simon Stern

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R v Marakah attempted to resolve the privacy status of text messages under section 8 of the Charter, but offered an incomplete solution because it failed to address the normative basis for protecting such communications. Despite the complexity of section 8 analysis (which itself is a product of multiple and inconsistent tests used to answer the same questions), the privacy of text messages allows for a relatively simple analysis. Normatively speaking, letters, email, and text messages all attract the same basic privacy interest, and should be treated analogously. However, if the police have …

Workplace Privacy In The Age Of Social Media, Tess Traylor-Notaro

Global Business Law Review

This note addresses the lack of adequate protections in Ohio for social media privacy laws in the workplace and compares proposed legislation in Ohio to legislation that has passed in other states. It examines the provision of the SCA including the definition of "user" and whether social media sites fall under its umbrella. It also looks at the safeguards and limitations of the SCA and how it is used to protect a private employee’s social media account. It analyzes the state statutory laws in Arkansas, Illinois, and California passed specifically to prevent employers from requesting passwords to personal Internet accounts. …

Wired Identities: Retention And Destruction Of Personal Health Information In An Electronic World, Elaine Gibson

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article examines the issue of the retention and destruction of personal health information. While legislation in Canada shows some attention to the issue of retaining health records, very little consideration has been given to their destruction. As technological advances have made indefinite retention feasible, serious privacy issues are now being raised by the lack of a standard related to the destruction of health records. The author argues that this issue needs to be explicitly addressed. The author analyzes this problem by looking at issues of autonomy, public good, inequality, and privacy as a social good before offering thoughts on …

Warrant Canaries Beyond The First Amendment: A Comment, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Warrant canaries have emerged as an intriguing tool for Internet companies to provide some measure of transparency for users while also complying with national security laws. Though there is at least a reasonable argument for the legality of warrant canaries in the U.S. based primarily on First Amendment "compelled speech" doctrine, the same cannot be said for the use of warrant canaries in other "Five Eyes” intelligence agency countries — United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia — where the legality of warrant canaries has yet to be examined in either cases or scholarship. This comment, which provides an overview …

Should The Default Be "Social"? Canada's Pushback Against Oversharing By Facebook, Karen Tanenbaum

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Electronic Evidence In Canada, Robert Currie, Steve Coughlan

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This chapter discusses the issues surrounding electronic evidence in Canada. Topics discussed include the best evidence rule, electronic signatures, web-based evidence, and video-tape and security camera evidence. In addition rules around protection of privacy, discovery, and confidentiality are pursued. Finally the chapter also considers the many issues which arise around gathering electronic evidence in the criminal context, including wiretaps, general warrants, and searches of computers and cell phones.

From Scanning To Sexting: The Scope Of Protection Of Dignity-Based Privacy In Canadian Child Pornography Law, Andrea Slane

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The Canadian approach to privacy rights in one's body is embedded in the relationship between interests in privacy, bodily integrity, and human dignity. Clarifying these interests is complicated by Canada's middle-ground stance between the European "dignity-based" approach to privacy and the US "liberty-based" orientation. The Canadian approach is closer to the European model when intrusions upon the body are conceived as wholly or mostly non-consensual (e.g., strip searches, voyeurism, and most child pornography). However, once consent plays a potentially determinative rote, the US liberty-based approach gains ground. This reluctance to fully align dignity with privacy results in confusion about the …

Ministerial Misfeasance: R. V. Morris And A Unique Early Privacy Breach, Barry Cahill

Dalhousie Law Journal

According to Klein &Kratchanov (Government Information: The Right to Information and Protection of Privacy in Canada, 2nd ed., 2009), "there is one reported case of a successful private prosecution for violation of an access statute through the unauthorized release of personal information. The matter arose under a former Nova Scotia Act and resulted in a modest fine being imposed against a Minister of the Crown who had disclosed information about the complainant." What follows is a close, contextual study of a case unique in the short history of privacy law in Canada, from the perspective of the thirty-year development of …

Consumer Privacy And Radio Frequency Identification Technology, Teresa Scassa, Theodore Chiasson, Michael Deturbide, Anne Uteck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Radio Frequency ID tags are poised to replace the UPC barcode as a mechanism for inventory control in the wholesale and retail contexts. Yet the tiny chips offer a range of potential uses that go beyond the bar code. In this paper the authors define RFID technology and its applications. They explore the privacy implications of this technology and consider recent attempts in the U.S. and European Union to grapple with the privacy issues raised by the deployment of RFIDs at the retail level. The authors then consider the extent to which Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act …

Foreign Investment Restrictions As Industrial Policy: The Case Of Canadian Telecommunications, Robert Crandall, Hal Singer

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

We assess the economic harms that would accrue if Canada were to adopt asymmetric rules of foreign ownership for incumbent carriers and entrants. We explain the current Canadian regulatory climate surrounding foreign investment in Canadian telecommunications. Competition in the telecommunications industry is generally robust, which suggests that rules aimed at favouring entrants are not necessary. Moreover, Canadian entrants are equally capable of attracting foreign capital as Canadian incumbents, which suggests that foreign investment rules aimed at favouring entrants are especially unwise.

Next, we review the U.S. attempt to stimulate competition in local telecommunications markets through an analogous form of asymmetrical …

The Ideal Victim, The Hysterical Complainant, And The Disclosure Of Confidential Records: The Implications Of The Charter For Sexual Assault Law, Lise Gotell

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article explores the current state of Canadian law on the production and disclosure of complainants' records to reflect upon the implications of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Canadian sexual assault law and jurisprudence. Some scholars assert that the Supreme Court's decision in R. v. Mills, upholding section 278 of the Criminal Code governing access to complainants' records, constitutes an erosion of accuseds' rights and an unjustified compromise of constitutional standards. By contrast, this article demonstrates that R. v. Mills is a highly contradictory decision that can be read as creating an interpretation of section 278 that …

The Personal Information Protection And Electronic Documents Act: A Lost Opportunity To Democratize Canada's "Technological Society", Tina Piper

Dalhousie Law Journal

Bill C-6, more recently known as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, is promoted by the Canadian government as privacy legislation to protect Canadians' personal information. This paper explores that characterization and concludes that it is inaccurate and misleading. The problems that motivated a response by Parliament are the proliferation and commercial importance of personal information, concerns Canadians have about its uncontrolled use by the private sector and the inadequacy of existing law to address those concerns. However, the Act has not responded to these problems. There are several reasons for this, primarily the disproportionate and antidemocratic importance …