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People do have an expectation of privacy that is at odds with what has been happening on the Internet. *Specifically* social networking sites like Facebook where there are real names attached to accounts and visible out in the open.

I feel privileged to live in Canada where we've enshrined some of our expected privacy into law to fight assholes like this. I hope the United States follows suit someday.

The .gc sites are a mess.. http://www.privacyinfo.ca site is better. The information is actually much easier to find.

It would also be illegal in Canada too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Information_ Protection_and_Electronic_Documents_Act
http://www.privacyinfo.ca/

For the record, this privacy law definitely makes writing inhouse programs for the enterprise interesting since you can't automatically assume that just because you have information available for use in the company, that you reuse it for another use within the company, even if the typical employee would expect such reuse to happen. You have to be explicit when you collect it or go back to people and get their permission after the fact about the new use. If they balk, you can't use that info. Period.

In the case of the business cards, if you place "please refer me " on your cards, your contacts could likely get away with putting it on jigsaw without issues. But if it's a plain card given with the explicit purpose of you being contacted by this other person, your contact and jigsaw would be out of luck.

Please keep in mind that Canadian privacy laws are very different than those in both US and EU, so I recommend reding PrivacyInfo.ca by Professor Michael Geist (University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law). Knowing the most important differences is essential to fully understand the issues in question so you will save a lot of time if you read about both Federal Privacy Legislation and Provincial Privacy Legislation first. The article linked in this story makes much less sense without appropriate background.

Please keep in mind that Canadian privacy laws are very different than those in both US and EU, so I recommend reding PrivacyInfo.ca by Professor Michael Geist (University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law). Knowing the most important differences is essential to fully understand the issues in question so you will save a lot of time if you read about both Federal Privacy Legislation and Provincial Privacy Legislation first. The article linked in this story makes much less sense without appropriate background.

Please keep in mind that Canadian privacy laws are very different than those in both US and EU, so I recommend reding PrivacyInfo.ca by Professor Michael Geist (University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law). Knowing the most important differences is essential to fully understand the issues in question so you will save a lot of time if you read about both Federal Privacy Legislation and Provincial Privacy Legislation first. The article linked in this story makes much less sense without appropriate background.

Here is the professors university home page , from where i guess the email id was harvested. Looks like the spammers should have read his biography and field of speciallization before having sent that mail :-) He even hosts this site regarding privacy issues

I could have seen much further had it not been for the giants standing on my shoulders