Canadian Technology & IP Law : Canadian Technology Lawyers & Attorneys : Stikeman Elliott Law Firm : IP Law in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa & Vancouver

Effective March 1, 2012, Google will put in place a unified privacy policy that will replace over 60 different privacy policies across Google and cover multiple products and features. The move, while presented as an upgrade in order to “create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google”, is necessitated by Google’s new plan to link user data collected across 60 Google products such as Gmail, YouTube and web searches. The data merge is scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2012 and users will not be allowed to opt out of the change. The merger of data collected across Google’s email, video and social-networking services will allow Google to target search results and advertising.  

Many critics have raised privacy concerns over Google’s new data merge practices and privacy policy, including some U.S. lawmakers. As internet companies try to gleam more information from their users, they are likely to be met with increased scrutiny from regulators who are concerned about consumer privacy. Some Google senior executives believe the regulators have gone too far in proposing certain measures which could “break the internet”. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Google’s chief legal officer raised concerns about the EU’s proposed privacy directive requiring explicit user consent to be obtained by website operators for the use of cookies.

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Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, recently issued a press release  warning consumers that new technology has the potential to build individually-detailed profiles based on IP addresses, social insurance numbers and even license plates. Her comments highlight a growing trend that the anonymity of personal information is becoming increasingly scarce, especially for online consumers.

The Commissioner’s comments are timely considering that Data Privacy Day  is January 28, 2012, a day when awareness of online privacy and data protection is brought to the forefront. Recognized in Canada, the United States and most of Europe, Data Privacy Day is organized by the National Cyber Security Alliance, who seeks to educate the general public about data privacy and to encourage dialogue about data protection among consumers, businesses and governments.

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On January 18, for the first time, the Ontario Court of Appeal in Jones v. Tsige explicitly recognized the tort of invasion of personal privacy. In July 2009, Sandra Jones discovered that her co-worker, Winnie Tsige, had been surreptitiously viewing her bank records for four years. Although Jones did not know or directly work with Tsige, Tsige and Jones’ ex-husband were in a common-law relationship. As an employee of the Bank of Montreal (where Jones maintained her primary bank account), Tsige had full access to Jones’ banking information. Contrary to the bank’s policy, Tsige accessed Jones’ banking records at least 174 times. Sharpe J.A. allowed the appeal, ruled that Tsige committed the tort of “intrusion upon seclusion” and granted Jones $10,000 in damages.

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The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) discussed in a prior blog post is garnering some very negative reactions from internet and technology companies, culminating in a day of protest by many websites to draw attention to the bills, which are making their way through the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Today, Wikipedia has blocked all of its English-language pages and Google has blacked out its U.S. home page logo (see sopastrike.com for a full list of the SOPA protest participants). Late last year, a group of nine technology companies (AOL, Ebay, Facebook, Google, Linkedin, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga) took out a full-page ad in the New York Times voicing their concern that “the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new and uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites.” Both bills have been the subject of controversy because of the severe measures that can be invoked relatively quickly and easily to block access to, or financially cripple, allegedly infringing websites.

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The arrival of 2012 marked the end of a year filled with numerous developments in technology and IP law. Taking a cue from the Canadian Communications Law blog, we’ve decided that this would be an excellent time to reflect on the past year and review some of its more notable developments. To that end, we’ve put together a list of the top 10 technology and IP law developments from the past year.

Without further ado, here are our picks for the top 10:

1. Court of Appeal recognizes reasonable expectation of privacy in contents of work computer - In R. v. Cole, a teacher discovered with nude images of a student on his work laptop was found by the Ontario Court of Appeal to have a reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to his personal files on that laptop.
    
2. No liability for defamation for basic hyperlinks, says Supreme Court - In a decision that came as a relief to bloggers, tweeters, webpage owners and other providers and hosts of internet content, the Supreme Court of Canada clarified in Crookes v. Newton that merely providing hyperlinks to defamatory content will not lead to liability for defamation.

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