CBC Reports Employers Spying on Workers

A report published earlier this week by CBC suggests that Canadian Employers regularly conduct surveillance of employees at work.

The report found here, claims that employers regularly listen to phone calls, monitor emails and video cameras. In addition they suggest that "The executives that are responsible for privacy in the workplace are not fully aware of the extent of ... the surveillance activity that is conducted,"

The question is how does the PIPEDA protect employees? Well according to the Privacy Commissioners website "At a minimum, employers should tell their employees what personal information will be collected, used, and disclosed," and "They should inform employees of their policies on web, e-mail, and telephone use, for example. If employees are subject to random or continuous surveillance, they need to be told so."

So if you are not sure are being spied on, ask your employer.
Tagged as: pipeda, Privacy, Security

Is the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act Unconstitutional?

Today the office of the privacy commissioner announced that The Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce has been asked to review the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act.

The previous government when asked about the necessity of the act in June of 2000 concluded that indeed the legislation was necessary; however “it is still important to ask whether it is possible to mitigate the privacy implications of the legislation.”

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner today stated three questions that arise when considering this act:

1. How serious are the problems the legislation is intended to address
2. Is the legislation effective
3. Are the proposed changes necessary

After review the privacy commissioner’s office concluded that “The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act is an inherently intrusive Act that is at odds with the protection of privacy” and questions the constitutionality of the current regime, specifically pointing out search and seizer requirements and violations of the Charter.

Full text of the Privacy Commissioners findings can be found here.

Tagged as: pipeda, Privacy, Security

Privacy Commissioners Annual Report to Parliament

Yesterday the office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada issued there annual report to parliament. The report’s key findings are that much more could be done to protect the personal information of Canadians in particular with respect to information crossing the border.

Crucial to the report are the Commissioners findings from an audit of the Canadian Border Services Agency which she initialed shortly after being appointed Commissioner in December of 2003. At the time she expressed concern with the “transborder” flow of personal information. Since then these concerns have heightened with the passing of the US Patriot Act which gives the United States government comprehensive power to seize information from Canadian companies operating in the US (and American companies). The report claims that 85% of Canadians who are aware of the act express some concern over the issue.

“The overall issue of transborder data flows has certainly caught the imagination of Canadians, and we have received inquiries and complaints which focus on it as a threat to privacy,” said Ms. Stoddart.

While the report claims that the Canadian Border Services Agency does have policies, procedures and systems in place for managing and sharing Canadians’ personal information with other countries, more must be done to mitigate risks, and achieve greater accountability and control over that information including:

• Making Activities associated with sharing data across borders more transparent.
• Creating a coordinated method of identifying and tracking all flows of its transborder data.
• Information is often disclosed without first obtaining approval from a designated CBSA official, which contravenes the Agency’s policy.

For more information about the annual report you can visit the Privacy Commissioners website or view the complete report here.

Tagged as: pipeda, Privacy, Security

Privacy and RFID

An interesting article was posted here the other day discussing privacy issues related to RFID or "Radio Frequency Identification". This process is defined as "The process of using an electrical transponder which stores information that can be used to identify the item to which the transponder is attached, similar to the way in which a bar code on a label stores information that can be used to identify the item to which the label is attached.”

The article sites a report by the privacy commissioner of Canada (Jennifer Stoddart) in which she discusses the threats of RFID to privacy, in particular the ability to track individual’s movements. “Identifying items people wear or carry could associate them with particular events — for example, political rallies or protests”. Manufactures argue that while it is possible to do this, it would cost billions of dollars claiming that GPS (Global Positioning System) is not compatible with RFID.

Tagged as: pipeda, Privacy, Security, RFID