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Canadian Privacy Act
Nos. writes "Yesterday, I happened upon an Act that came into effect in Canada on January 1, 2004. The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act protects almost every bit of personal information not publicly available. For example, your name, race, date of birth, income, etc. are protected where your address and telephone number are not (these are generally available in the telephone book). Some of the more interesting parts of the faq include such wonderful things as: '[businesses must] supply you with a product or a service even if you refuse consent for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information unless the information is essential to the transaction'. Definitely a step in the right direction."
...this conincides with the Canadian recording industry going after users.
Am I the only one who just spits out a random string of numbers when they ask for phone number or zip code info at the checkout?
This looks like a good thing. However, in a quick glance-through of the act, I didn't see anything dealing with information already collected.
Or if governmental agencies' practices are also influenced by the act.
RD
Sure, we laughingly call it "America Junior," but when it comes to privacy rights America Jr. has it all over Big Brother.
For me being an American! Where our rights to privacy are honored and upheld by the great - hey, wait a minute.....
This could outlaw "drive-by" installs of spyware in Canada.
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
Yeah... and we've got HIPAA for medical privacy here in the US yet, when I visited the doc's last, I found that he had installed a RF wireless keyboard that uses one of eight selectable encryption keys.
Privacy is impossible if one is to interface with the digital world.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Canadian private investigators? Not that I'd miss those buggers.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
...so does this make Canada the land of the free and the home of the 'eh?'
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
For example, your name, race, date of birth, income, etc. are protected where your address and telephone number are not
What I want is not to be pestered salesmen and junk mail.
I don't care if total strangers send me birthday cards.
"protects almost every bit of personal information not publicly available. For example, your name"...
"where your address and telephone number are not (these are generally available in the telephone book)."
So in Canada they dont put your name in a phone book?
If this was real, it would make for some great jokes.
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
are two different things. Ie, here in Germany we have very tough laws with regard to your personal information and how it must be handled by businesses and the government. It's called "Datenschutz" and the CCC (Chaos Computer Club, you know: Blinkenlights) is a big lobbiest for Datenschutz.
Unfortunately the laws and procedures are broken every day, simply because it's so easy to do. It's very rare that somebody publicly complains when personal privacy is jeopardized and even when somebody cries foul, the public doesn't care.
Free Manning, jail Obama.
For example, your name, race, date of birth, income, etc. are protected where your address and telephone number are not.
How are they going to call you without your name?
It makes no sense for a business not to sell you something because you refuse to provide personal information. If I were a business owner, I'd sell my products to anybody that was willing to offer cash. I see businesses all the time refusing to sell to some segment of the population, and I find that truly bizarre.
Hi. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such Canadian privacy films as "Bob McKenzie Owns 83 lbs of Back Bacon" and "Anne Murray: Lesbian or Not?"
[businesses must] supply you with a product or a service even if you refuse consent for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information unless the information is essential to the transaction.
This is likely more toothless than you would think - or at least, if this were U.S. law, it would be - because things like your SSN, date of birth, or mother's maiden name would be described by the service provider as "necessary" because they "need" to do a credit check on you.
2) if this is bullshit, then it is nothing but a pr stunt.
i am feeling awfully cynical today. sardonic too, with a splash of "eat shit and die, big brother".
btw, how will this be protected? what happens if a multinational corporation keeps information gathered in your country in a different country?
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Perhaps one might ask what they can accomplish with our info... and ask if it is a good thing.
#define DRM chmod 000
I actually had to sign one of these statements at work & deal with this whenever I see the doctor/dentist/etc.
It seems that information already collected must be dealt with according to the act. Just because you collected it last year, doesn't mean you don't need consent to use it this year. Actually, my Dentist made me sign a form for them to share/get information with outside labratories.
===> An eye for an eye makes everyone blind - MG
...this conincides with the Canadian recording industry going after users.
There is a difference between Bryan Adams and Ryan Adams. I found this out the hard way.
These laws are great in theory but considering the government's lack of enthusiasm to protect personal information (at least in the US) they are nearly impossible to enforce.
The whole war on spam is the exact same thing. The government passes all of these laws to make it look like they're doing something but then can't/won't enforce said laws.
They can pass all the laws they want but if the government is unwilling to enforce them then what's the point?
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Does this mean I can finally buy a Bell Expressvu system without providing them my drivers license?
;-)
Interesting...
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I don't even have to review the legislation to know that no matter how it is written, CSIS, the RCMP, and your local cop shop will ignore it if they feel the need.
Your SIN is private, right? HEH. Nope. Now it's linked in government databases to everything. As someone who once had complete and total access to several sensitive (welfare client info) government databases - and was challenged appropriately by only ONE of dozens of sysadmins - I don't trust the government to protect a pile of dog feces.
Hey, tech support/marketing, do you hear that. I'm so sick of having to cough up all my information every time I call some tech line. What's next, a blood sample?
I already have your product and it doesn't seem to be working correctly. I DON'T WANT YOUR SURVEYS OR MARKETING CRAP. I want support and it seems that I call the wrong number every single time.
Yeah, well at least the assholes at radio shack cant refuse to sell me a AA battery because I refuse to give them my full name, address, phone number, etc, etc..
Yeah, and they get REAL ANGRY if you refuse to divulge all.
wtf, infomation that is not publicly available bla bla...isn't the privacy problem, in part, determining what in fact is infomation that should be public? Or is the phonebook company up there publicly owned? What if any ol business decided to make your infomation public, then, according to the post, it is available for any other business to post.
Error: Id10t detected
I was at a Honda dealer trying to get service for my car, and when they asked for my address, I told them I didn't want any junk mail.
They were flustered. They said there was no way to put me into the system without getting on a marketing list. Eventually I gave them a fake address.
Go Canada. Stop this abuse.
One of our hosting providers dealt with this issue. They had to send physical mail to each person to have them sign a release opting-in to their mailing list. Not spam, mind you, but system messages that they were relying on.
:)
I like the idea, but this creates a lot of work too. For the unemployed, though, I guess that doesn't always sound like a bad thing.
A national Do Not Call Registry like the U.S. Anyone happen to know if there is something like that here in Canada? I know that the Canadian Marketing Association has a Do Not Contact Service that allows you to get off of marketing lists which I suppose is a similar idea.
Good afternoon sir. I'm sorry to impede your progress but, I'm afraid that I must. You seem to be breaking Canada's number one rule. Be nice! Eh?
That was a really unpleasant thing you said back there sir. Eh? Regretably, the law requires me to impose upon you with this written warning. Please don't let is happen again. Thank you very much and have a wonderful day. Eh?
Why is everyone asking if this is real? Do you think there are no laws in canada?
My employer has been spending a few weeks getting all ouf our information complaint with this act, and pulled me off the phones for an information session.
And tech support centers don't do things like that unless they are required to by law.
I can see it now...
"No, mister clever Radio Shack employee, I don't want to give you my mother's maiden name, i just want to buy these double-a batteries! And now the law is on my side!"
I can hardly wait!
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
I see of /. Canada called socialist in our politics. This seems to be the counterproof. Why does the electronics store need my address postal code and phone number when I buy a gizmo? If I'm going to give you marketing information, you give me something in exchange. Simply business.
Santos L. Halper
732 Evengreen Ter.
Springfield KY, 40069
(859)764-8437 (I know, it's Moe's...)
I love this place. Our drinking age is lower, our technology is cheaper, our women are cuter...
Seriously though, I have done allot of thinking about the difference between Americans and Canadians lately and I believe that the best way of explaining it is by looking at American idol and comparing it to CBC's Monday Report. Americans like to laugh at themselves and Canadians like to laugh at their politicians.
Now it's linked in government databases to everything.
Canada's Social Insurance Numbers are basically an account number for each citizen. By law even the banks can't demand it although they can refuse service if you don't give it to them.
change the oil in my car unless I gave them my name, address, and phone number.
Sounds like that would be illegal in Canada now.
Just because the person who wrote the blurb only heard about PIPEDA this week doesn't mean it's newly enacted.
When I took an IT law course in 1999 we talked about PIPEDA and it came into effect in stages starting in 2000, first affecting government, then banks, then large companies, and so on until it applies to all companies.
Jason
ProfQuotes
[Thank God!] For me being an American! Where our rights to privacy are honored and upheld by the great - hey, wait a minute.....
... "the Great and Powerful Oz ..." ??
You were going to say
-kgj
-kgj
Your name isn't publicly available?
As a physician, I can say that HIPPA does exactly the opposite of what most people expect. This is a bogus law lobbied for by the insurance carriers. Essentially, information is free game for all insurance carriers, but the very care providers are limited in their ability to share/discuss and enable the care of patients by this law. There have been many mistakes made because the identity of the patient was "hidden" and the wrong patient has recieved or not recieved something. After this I lost all faith in our government to make laws to accomplish the percieved purpose they are sold to us.
Being a Canadian, and being an advocate for privacy, I've always been fighting Banks and other companies about how they collect and 'store' my information without impacting my service. X Bank recently sent me a letter stating that if I didn't approve of their using my personal information, it could impact their ability to provide me services. (x = big non-customer focused bank).
I promptly forward this to the Privacy office who responded back in just a week to both me and the X Privacy Department that:
a) The Privacy Commission's opinion was that letter X sent to me implies that if I don't agree to let them collect information, I loose services. It then scolded X for forcing clients to agree to the new policy. Fork 1, X 0.
b) X was warned to revise the letter to adhere to the new policy. Fork 2, X 0.
c) X was to clarify their communications to the customers on what they mean by 'reduced services.' Fork 3, X 0
d) X was to inform their clients of this new policy ASAP and apologize to me. Fork 4, X 0.
X Bank has not contacted me to date (it's been four weeks). I closed my account with them today and informed the PC of the fact. When X bank asked why I was closing:
"Sir, before I close this account may I ask why you're closing it?"
"You don't know how to play the customer service game. The score is 4 to nothing."
"Excuse me sir? I don't understand the answer and I need to put in something"
"Fork 4, X 0 - put that in there"
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
What needs to happen is that a german laywer, upon getting their privacy violated, needs to take the offending party to court and sue the shit out of them on the basis they are violating their civil rights (as granted through "Datenshutz". Or they need to lobby their elected offical to do something about it.*
*Note: I know nothing of the German court system, hence this comment could be total rubbish.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Police Information Systems,
l l. pdf
Information Practices and
Individual Privacy.
If your really interested in Ontario's laws regarding information storage, read the following article:
http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/pub/cpp/March97/Sche
Mod +5 Drunk
The writeup says that the person's name is considered private and also says that businesses must provide goods and services even if the customer won't share private information. So Canadians can get anonymous credit cards now? They can get a car loan without providing a name? That sounds crazy to me.
Somehow the writup must be wrong or there will be a lot of problems implementing this law.
Is to vote with your wallet.
I'm talking mainly about the retailers who ask for name, address, phone number, email etc, when you try to buy something.
I went to Circuit City to buy a TV, took out enough cash to pay for it, walked in, told the guy which I wanted, and we walked to the little sales terminal. He asked "can I have your name and address?" And I said, "no, you can have $499 plus tax". He started telling me how the computer "requires" it.. Gimme a break.
What you need to do is know when to walk away. I grabbed a sales circular by the door on my way out (because Best Buy would match the price)..
In the states, I've noticed that Best Buy stopped asking, they must have got the message, for instance.
It wastes the clerks time, annoys customers, and the marketing value of the collected data would come nowhere close to the amount of cold, hard, stinky cash walking out the door.
It's just the tip of the privacy iceburg, sure, but it annoying, and a good place to start sending a message.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I had a friend who used to give the name Ray Diosack (pronounce it) to Radioshack when they asked for his name. He would then procede to give the cashier the street address for the store he was in. Nobody ever commented on this fact. Anyway, he would laugh to himself about the bulk mailers that must show up at the store every month from Radio Shack to Ray Diosack.
He then went to a local computer shop called MicroCenter. As he was waiting in line he realized that this would work great for his little name game: Mike Rocenter... it even sounds like a real name. So anyway, he gets to the cashier full of excitement and gives the name Mike Rocenter. The cashier enters the name into the computer and says, with a straight face, "727 Memorial Drive"? This was, of course, the location of the store. Somebody else had given them the same fake name and address. Oh well, my friend sheepishly said yes and paid for his purchase.
--
RumorsDaily
In the uk we have the Data Protection Act (of 1984 and redone in '98 AFAIK) which lays down rules about how your data is handled. Companies etc that collect data on you must be registered and must keep your data secure from others. Also you have the right to view all the data that anyone holds on you and ensure its accurate (except in a few situations such as police investigation), you can even see emails/memos about you and cctv tapes (again AFIAK). Even my old school is registered. There are afew other things which i forget but you can read about here
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
What she typed in was "Fork that asshole, we got the money".
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Im not surprised at all this has been put into law. Privacy is a right that all citizens have equally.
*Socialism, often confused with communism (i think you meant it negatively), is not a bad thing. Its the middle ground between capitalism and communism.
socialism
doesnt sound that bad now does it.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
... but I was recently at my dentist, and he asked me to sign some big form saying how he could use my information, because said act prevented him from doing such simple things as sharing my X-rays with another doctor if he needed to consult with someone. I read through it and most of the clauses had to do with the consulting aspect, or patient referals, but buried in the clauses was a little blurb about sharing my personal information with "medical equipment providers and vendors".
Which kinda gave me pause but, in the end, does anyone really care? It's only time-on-their-hands-kinda-people that are pursuing this whole "privacy legislation" thing. Its just needless beauracracy so the curmudgeon portion of the population can have someone to complain to other then their local politician. Business are just gonna get around it in the end.
Just my 2 cents... now worth 1.4 cents American.
Your SIN is private, right? HEH. Nope. Now it's linked in government databases to everything. As someone who once had complete and total access to several sensitive (welfare client info) government databases - and was challenged appropriately by only ONE of dozens of sysadmins - I don't trust the government to protect a pile of dog feces.
The personal details of all Canadian residents (not just citizens) are automatically classified as "Protected" and any department or agency worth their salt actually do take this sort of stuff seriously.
Any case of abuse (of people's personal data) does tend to result in being fired, period.
The federal government (outside CCRA) does avoid using SIN as much as possible because any document with that on it, has to be classified "Protected".
HRDC uses a fair bit, but as little as possible in what I've seen.
I've seen federal government forms that ask for only the last digit of your year of birth, in an attempt to prevent age decriminitation (if they don't know your actual age, they can't be accused of decriminiating based upon it) in the hiring process.
Honestly I have to say the Canadian federal government takes privacy seriously, it's an important Canadian value. Sure, some people see it as a hassle and more paperwork, but overall the vast majority do value the public's privacy and security.
BTW, do you know if there was an auditing on that database? Not all privacy enforcement is pro-active, to prevent being overly burdensome, but can flag and catch abusers. That technique is heavily used in medical privacy, and the medical files of celeberties.
Or just common sense for Euros :grin:
I see of /. Canada called socialist
yes, this is correct. Canada, like most countries with high standards of living (like most of Europe) is Socialist. As a Canadian, I'm quite proud of this.
This seems to be the counterproof.
No, this is exactly proof. This is what Socialist governments do - they enact laws that benefit people instead of ones that benefit corporations.
Americans seem to equate 'socialism' with 'totalitarianism', when the two have exactly zero in common. Perhaps if you understood what the terms actually mean, you wouldn't be so confused.
someone smarter than me said it better than me... the border between canada and the us is a one way mirror: americans look north and see themselves, canadians look south and see everything they are not
americans think of canadians as cute little fuzzy americans who got lost in an ice box... they tend to think of canadians patronizingly, paternalistically, if they even think of canadians at all
canadians think of americans as scary warmongering orwellian pseudofascists a half heart beat away from doing something really scary that canada has to worry about... they tend to emphasize their differences with americans as much as humanly possible, and they tend to think about their relationship with america alot
as an american, all i can say is the maple leaf state sure is a cold lonely place (chuckle)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
There are other issues that you might consider before moving to Canada. These have to do with Free Speech. There is no room for it north of 49.
= 110004688
Canada has an "Official Languages Commissioner" currently looking into Don Cherry's
http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id
remarks about "French Guys" being "wimps" since more of them in the NHL wear face shields. Basically, that's the whole story.
The "Minister of State for Multiculturalism" is also involved: "the government will not tolerate statements that create dissonance in our society and disrespect for others."
All this proves is that Candians need a Bill of Rights stronger than their wimpy... oops - Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Well, it doesn't seem to protect any speech outside of these Ministers of Silly Walks combined tut-tutting (which would be a fine way to just keep these political hacks busy if their mere opinions did not have the force of law).
To brag a little, we in Sweden have had something like this for years. We can also ask companies and goverment/state organisations what they have stored on us, and even tell them to have it removed.
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
I'm from Canada and two weeks ago my employer held a seminar regarding PIPEDA and what it means.
The ramifications of it are quite enormous though as someone pointed out, it isn't retroactive. Canadian lawyers will make a killing as contracts are established/renewed will need to ensure that privacy is taken into account.
There are a few interesting twists to it, though. For example, my company is planning on implementing a very strict policy regarding PIPEDA. But I am currently outsourced working at a client's site. The policy that I will have to follow will be the one that my client implements.
I was also told that there are looser stipulations for international business. So if I'm doing business with an American resident, and the United States doesn't have a similar law, then I am not required BY LAW to follow my company's privacy policy.
It'll be interesting to see how the government tweaks this in the future. I am very happy that something like this is finally in place.
I know a bit more about it (though I'm not a lawyer) :-)
:-)
Yes, unfortunately the law doesn't specify any about penalties. To the best of my knowledge the highest damages that has ever been awarded for a violation of the privacy rights was ~100k. Not bad, but that person was able to proof in court that he had suffered real monetary damages. Psychological distress doesn't count
Courts have been relucatant with rewarding damages. For example, the phone company published a phone number of battered women's shelter by accident. They had to close the shelter, because they couldn't guarantee the safety anymore. They had to sell the house at a loss etc. and move elsewhere. The court awarded 15k in damages. That's a joke...
Another thing that the law describes is that you may only ask for the data you need. That has led to webmaster being "abgemahnt" (like a competitor complaining, costs you some money, but all without a court) for asking the name of newsletter-subscribers (email address would have been enough)... uh well...
But guess what... Some companies just moved their computing centers to chile, because they don't have privacy laws. They export the data, do the "illegal" cross linking in chile, and then re-import the data.
It's not that simple in practice. Getting damages from a court is nice, but German courts are a bit more realistic in awarding damages. What's easier is getting a court order to have them stop. While the law doesn't specify penalties/damages, violating a court order can get you in trouble...
you got the punctuation wrong there.
;)
"Fork: that asshole, qui. Got the money."
she was complaining bi-lingually
SO you closed your account with bank X... You should have changed the subject to "The Privacy Commission slaps a big bank around on the writes Doesn't sound like a pretty hefty slap to me... They got a letter. wow.
Did you just attend the Security and Privacy conference in Victoria yesterday? I hope you didn't just horribly mislead the Slashdot hordes by citing the dates off the top of your uninformed head instead of basic research. (This conference had discussion about various privacy legislation.)
1 5_e.asp
Specifically, the federal Privacy Act came into effect July 1, 1983, the federal PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) came into effect January 1, 2001, and the BC provincial PIPA (Personal Information Privacy Act) came into effect January 1, 2004. What it is important is that "[a]s of January 1, 2004, the [Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents] Act will cover the collection, use or disclosure of personal information in the course of any commercial activity within a province, including provincially regulated organizations. The federal government may exempt organizations or activities in provinces that have their own privacy laws if they are substantially similar to the federal law." PIPEDA has been in place for a few years now, it just got extended to corporatations; BC now has their own overriding legislation as well.
See here for more details:
http://www.privcom.gc.ca/fs-fi/02_05_d_
I also thought your post was a horrible summary of the various pieces of legislation and their consequences, but that's just my opinion. I'd suggest next time using the official government propoganda. Even your first sentence managed to probably be incorrect--PIPA (and probably PIPEDA, I'm not sure) does protect your personal information that is public as well, in terms of reasonable use (i.e. I believe telemarketers aren't allowed to go through the telephone directory).
Regards,
Casper
here in Germany we have very tough laws with regard to your personal information and how it must be handled by businesses and the government
Yeah, under that law only ex-Stasi officers are allowed to know where the file folders went.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Was that one letter or 4 seperate letters? It sounds impressive, but I have the feeling that nothing changed except you.
Reasonable people change themselves to conform with their environment. Unreasonable people change their environment to conform to themself so all progress has been made by unreasonable people.
(Likewise, it's a violation of your CC company's TOS to give out your CC# for purposes unrelated directly to a financial transaction, and your CC card can and very likely will be cancelled outright by the company if you complain about a spurious charge incurred because of this).
(Moderated to -5, flamebait)
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
To be fair, I was dealing with an Ontario *provincial* system... I still don't trust the feds.
Here's an interesting example of how this law is already having unforseen effects.
Guy calls the bank to activate his new credit card. At the beginning of the call he gets the obligatory "This call may be mointored for quality assurance purposes" message. The guy complains that he doesn't want to have his call monitored. The bank says well if you don't like it you can jam your card where the sun don't shine. Guy complains to the privacy commissioner. The privacy comissioner rules in favour of the guy and decrees that banks cannot monitor calls without consent as it violates our fabulous new privacy laws.
The upshot? It's now much easier for theives and fraudsters to steal credit cards from mailboxes and activate and use them. The bank is no longer allowed to record what phone number is used to register the card, and if the fraudster has obtained other personal information about you (or fraudently applied for the card in your name) you and the bank are screwed. Go privacy!
I've registered my name in the phone book as my first initial of first two names and then my last name. I.e. H. J. Simpson. Since nobody actually calls me H. J., but prefers to use my real name (Homer), every time I get a call for my "telephone name," I know it's a telemarketer. Same thing goes for addressed mail. Haven't opened a piece of junk mail in years.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Radio Shack has learned from their mistakes of the past, thank goodness. Last year it finally dawned on Radio Shack that they were really angering their customers with the mandatory name and address BS just to buy a battery. They changed their policy to no longer ask for it and they even went so far as to run a radio advertising campaign, in my area, where the CEO apologized for their past policy and heralded the fact that it would no longer be the case.
You know you've pissed off your customers when the CEO has to go on the radio and tell everyone that he has learned and the policy is gone.
Do I go forth and wave this in the face of every place I have bought something? I should go ask them to take me out of their system.
(1st sig) If this were a snappy sig, you'd be reading it right now. (2nd sig) I'm a karma whore. >Insert FUD here
Is anyone else amused by the fact that the official site sets a cookie?
Instead of letting them know that their privacy policy is losing them customers, you make sure they know you're just a prick. Excellent.
You know, they do keep track of why people are leaving for a reason.
Oh I forgot to mention in my other responses, the Privacy commissioner has the right under the legislation to fully audit a company accused of privacy violations and then if they are found to have violated a persons provacy the commisioner has the right to publish publicly those violations.
i ndex.asp?C_ID=Fpriv
This right to publish a companies dirty secrets alone is a significant deterent to companies who abuse citizens privacy not to mention the significant cash penalties that could result.
Also keep in mind that PIPEDA is one of the few ways in canada where a class action type lawsuit can be brought, something that almost never happens in Canada.
For more information on what this law means to canadian business check out...
http://www.blakes.com/english/publications/focus/
Parking lot complaints
825 complaints in 18 months in one city against one company. The data was sold by the government to the parking company.
Vip
I, personally, I prefer the real names. E.g. Citibank (Citicorp) in Germany has a wonderful statement in their contracts saying that they are allowed to transfer all personal data whatsoever to USA and use it according to the local rules there.
What kind of sick country tracks "race" in a database? What use will that ever have? I can understand tracking age and so on, but race!? Racism by the government is no better than by anybody else.
And how does taping prevent this?
Steal the card, call from any phone, activate it.
They don't authenticate in ANY way that I'm aware of.
Thanks a lot.. ..by just leaving the Bank, you've basically given up your right to complain further on the matter. Had you stayed with them and made repeated requests to the Privacy Commissioner for your deserved apology, the bank would have continued to be letter slapped until it turned into government imposed fines.. which would have gotten their attention and possibly improved customer service for everyone.
I know, not your responsibility, but it would have been nice for other folks having to deal with these guys.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
What is not covered by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act?
Does this mean we will begin to see e-mail address databases for sale in haiku form?
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
Question: Under capitalism, would business owners be allowed to discriminate based on race, sex, and other irrelevant characteristics? Wouldn't capitalism help perpetuate racism?
u lt .htm
Answer: Freedom has to include the freedom to make mistakes. Freedom of speech, for example, cannot mean "Say whatever you want, as long as you agree with me." It has to include the freedom to espouse wrong and even vicious ideas (including racism).
For the same reason, individual rights must include the right to act irrationally. People have a right to decide who they will hire and who they will accept as a tenant, customer, business partner, and so on. To take away that freedom is to take away a person's right to control his own life and property. It is contradiction to say, "Your life is yours to live--so long as you don't do anything I disapprove of."
Left free to control their own lives, some people will act irrationally; they will refuse to hire employees or to accept customers on the basis of race, sex, or other irrelevant characteristics. Capitalism recognizes their right to make such irrational decisions--but it does not grant them the right to escape the consequences of their irrationality.
A man who runs his business on the basis of irrational prejudice will suffer the economic consequences. If he hires a mediocre man in place of a talented woman, he suffers the loss in productivity--while someone else, who does hire the woman, profits from her talent. If he refuses to serve a customer because he is black, he loses a customer--while a rival gains that customer. The free market encourages rationality. It does not encourage a businessman who arbitrarily rejects talented workers and paying customers.
This is why, as a matter of historical fact, every entrenched system of prejudice has been backed by government support. Segregation in the south and Apartheid in South Africa are just two examples. If left free, businessmen will seek profits by hiring the most competent workers and by accepting every paying customer, regardless of race. That's why government regulations--regulations excluding the mixing of races in the workplace and forbidding businesses from serving customers of a particular race--were required to prop up racism.
But that, once again, is a problem created by state controls, not by capitalism.
http://www.moraldefense.com/Philosophy/FAQ/defa
well you can draw out your entire income, (after tax if they tax at the source). the trick is to spend very little, and break every large bill. Keep the massive fistfulls of small denomination bills you get as change somewhere safe (like a wading pool). At the end of the pay period, just before you get the next cheque, throw the change from this pay period into the safe place and shuffle it (maybe by swimming in it once you've accumulated enough.)
then take out of the "pool" an amount of small denomination bills exactly equal to your next paycheque, and bank it. This is money you want to use for interest bearing savings accounts and investments and such. Then cash your pay cheque, and repeat the cycle until you catch some strange disease from all that money.
Voila! Scrooge McDuck on a budget. You don't think he got all that money by spending money do you?
No the secret is to play with lots of cash and spend verry little if you want to enter the cash economy.
it's almost as good as having a bookie for a friend who always has you break even and pays you with old soggy untracable bills.
OTOH, you could just move to canada. Have you noticed that Canada seems to be defending civil liberties when america stripps them away? Just like New Zeland is being everything that Australia is not. It's almost like there are pairs of countries that are like, married or something.
bizarre.
Now they can't bust you for mp3s. ISP cannot give out your name and info
marvelous troll. sidesteps the real issue. /year, iirc) they have to provide you with a tax receipt. that loan that you take out might well be tax-deductible, but not if there is no SI# on it.
anyone, repeat, anyone, who must fill out a tax form on your behalf in canada must have your SI#. banks have a reasonable expectation that they will pay interest on you savings account, and if it's above a certain amount ($2.00 CDN
The key thing here is not that it's in force as of January 1st 2004 but that EVERY business is covered. There was phased implementation of the legislation since the legislation became law at least two years ago. Entities like health care, telecommunications services providers (like ISPs, mobile phone companies, etc), banks and many other inter-provincial and international entities have been governed by this legislation for some time. It's also aligned with the EU privacy directive (which the U.S.A. has had significant hassles complying with). It's interesting to note that many American companies operating in Canada complied with these laws without much fuss... however, they would lobby aggressively in the United States that these laws are unfair restrictions on their business activities (eg. profiling you and selling your information to marketers). That certainly smells fishy to me.
Your thinking is: If 100 people say that 1+1=3
then I must think that 1+1=3.
Well, that is obviously wrong.
*Yawnnnnnn* boy.
An ac wrote I know an awful lot of athiests and agnostics who are opposed to unrestricted abortion in America.
The abolition of slavery was considered the work of religious radicals too, who had this wild notion that all those slaves were human beings and their book said it was wrong to keep human beings in bondage, but not every abolitionist was religious. The right to live, like the right to not be a slave, is something that plenty of people can grasp without the guidance of Holy texts.
So, at the end of the day, like most things, the problem can be blamed directly on religious people. In this case, American Christians.
At the end of the day, I find that most problems can be blamed on the intollerent. You know, like some American Christians... also, exactly like you.
Good points.
The thing thing with political debates that you have to remember is that there are real consequences for the ideas that we kick around like so many political footballs.
Slavery in england was ended relatively peacefully. That is good.
Slavery in america (same idea, different people kicking it in a different direction) was ended with a civil war. (ok so that's the kindergarten version) Which is also good, except for the people who got killed.
The thing is that if you're male, you will never have to have an abortion. I'm male and so I can easly say "Abortion this, Abortion that. I could have been one of those foetuses." But on the other hand I'll never be a single teenaged mother. Which is different from being a single teenaged father because my body will never attempt to turn itself inside out to deliver a baby and then make me want to lactate thus making it harder for me to run away.
With the right to privacy, personal consequences become a lot more subtle - David Brin said in the "Transparent Society" that the consequence of the eventual death of privacy due to the power of electronic media would simply be a return to the village, where everybody knows everybody elses business.
I think that's another play of political football because of what happens if the village you return to is This village, where knowing is not enough. If people do something terrible, and everybody knows it but nobody acts it is in some ways worse than if they had their privacy to begin with.
Also you have to consider that majorities are fickle. What if 20 years from now an activity that you consider perfectly acceptable like say, knowing how to program becomes unacceptable by the general community.
Want an example? Think about it: If you can program in C, you can write viruses! that's scary for the non-programmers out there that think that software magically appears shrinkwrapped at the store.
It starts when you first have to register all your compilers. Then you have a crackdown against free unregistered compilers and "Kitchen table linux dealers". 60 minutes runs a special about how computer shows allow unknown people to aquire software - including unregistered compilers (a compiler being an incredibily powerful piece of software that allows you to create any other piece of software... Including VIRUSES).
Mandataory "Compiler licences" are required by the government where the person applying for one has to submit three photos, a blood sample, a retinal image and fingerprints. At least two of these are checked by biometric scanning every time the compiler is invoked (following the tradition of "smart guns" or "safe firearms").
The compiler must be stored on an EPROM in a dedicated piece of hardware and the source brought to it on some kind of storage media. The output is removed on another storage media to prevent people hacking in and compiling software from their terminals. The compiler's hardware must be kept in a safe that weighs at least 150kg or is b
Only loosers cre about privacy. They rack up billions in debt and cry foul. Honest people should be known to the right people. I agree with the race, ethnic and other stuff, but having the finance company track loosers is essential. Otherwise the rest of us pick up the tab.
Peter Francis Gerace can go to hell!!!
Hot damn! we ought to make a list.
The Canada of America is Canada.
The Canada of Germany is Austria.
The Canada of Australia is New Zeland.
The Canada of Britain is France.
The Canada of Spain is Portugal.
The Canada of Singapore is... Sorry, I guess you Singaporians are screwed.
So, this is good because a government is adding yet another restriction to business? Since when was I required to do business with any non-government entity?
The only time protections like this should exist is when the government demands data from its citizens, or demands that its citizens give their data to a third party.
Of course, this may be just an example of how regulation leads to regulation. For example, say the government requires certain paperwork from banks for tax reasons, including customer data to make sure the customers are real. But then the bank can't operate without collecting that data from citizens, so the government is basically saying to its *citizens*, "When you do such and such a business with any entity (because any entity doing that business with you will be classified as a bank), you must give them such and such data.
Then somebody complains to (or sues) the government over how the bank doesn't keep their data safe, and guess what? It's the government's fault that they have it in the first place, so it's the government's job to fix it. And the regulations that ensue require that....... and the trend continues. Way to go Canada! We're right behind you! (unfortunately}
To be precise,
Security classification for any document containing a person's name is "Protected B".
As soon as it has your SIN, it's "Protected A"
mind you , those are the very lowest form of 'classified' documents I've seen in the military. It's not that secure!
Let's not all suck at the same time please
One surprising effect: a professor supervising a student has to ask the student permission to disclose the name and title of the student's thesis on a grant application. If no permission is obtained, you are supposed to leave out the name and describe the thesis topic only generally (you can't use the real title).
The thesis itself is information on public display in the university library, and the author and title is in the library catalog, but even the supervisor has to ask permission to disclose the work of their own students to a granting agency. Go figure.
So does this mean the pieces that we were seeing about clubs in Vancouver beginning to require people to swipe in with their driver's licenses is not legal? And how can we get proof of age for places like that if we can refuse to show the bouncer anything that would be personal/private information, like I assume a driver's license number would be?
Didn't they teach you in elementary school that it's a comma before "eh?", not a period? It alsmost never has a capital unless it's a sentence of it's own (which would mean "oh really?", or "I don't understand", or "I didn't hear you" depending on the context. Also, "eh?" would replace the sir in the second paragraph, not come after.
here in Germany we have very tough laws with regard to your personal information and how it must be handled by businesses and the government
This is actually a EU directive. Or actually, two different ones. One dealing with regular privacy (enforced since 1998), and one with online privacy (enforced since last year). Seemingly when you read the text of the directive, it has a lot of teeth, but in practice they make exceptions every time someone asks. Like when the US insisted on having every bit of available information on EU citizens flying into the US (including the kind of meal they took, and how they paid for their ticket). The EU after some haggling made an exception that allows some, but not all, of the passenger information to pass to the US.
At least, a privacy law, even if it's not being enforced, is still better than no privacy law.
No, seriously. It is.
Do you even know what socialist means?
bacchusrx.
Life after capitalism? The participatory economics project
That isn't true.
I used to work for CitiBank's Canadian office. Credit agents are given explicit instructions to drop any further inquiries on the matter when a customer declines to give her SIN. This is not so for American customers vis-a-vis the SSN.
In Canada, at least, a SIN is not necessary to pull a credit bureau report, though, it can be used to eliminate false matches (say, more than one John Smith, and, your address matches with none of them but your DOB with a few).
Further, SINs are nonunique in Canada. Or, that's how the theory goes, anyway.
I just finished working on a piece of code for a company where this was a central issue. In the end, after much messing about with postcode databases, directory services and CGI forms to collect sets of data we had a meeting.
We decided that actually the only thing we needed
from a _logical_ viewpoint was one UID, so we scrapped the code, rewrote it to use just an email address.
No more hassles with data protections regulations, no more worrying about validation (one regex does it all), no fears about out of sync databases or misaligned fields.
As a business decision it was inspiring and so sensible, we just looked at what we _needed_
Companies should realise how much extra it costs them to keep superfluous data, program for it, log it, maintain it. Many just use a standard CGI form template with little thought about what is actually necessary. They collect data 'because they can'.
Interesting article, but of course the easiest way to deal with multiple jurisdictions is to follow the regulations of the common denominator: if the companies can't be sure that their Canadian and American information is being kept separate, then they'll just have to apply Canadian standards to all their information. So maybe this Act will help out Americans, too!
It just means that it goes into the burn bag rather than into the trash can. When I was in the military, *everything* went into the burn bag. Did an exercise with bogus data? Burn baby, burn! Not sure if everywhere is like that, but they took that attitude that it's better to be safe.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Security classification for any document containing a person's name is "Protected B". ...
mind you , those are the very lowest form of 'classified' documents I've seen in the military. It's not that secure!
It doesn't have to be very secure, the largest threat is internal - employees, who can be easily sanctioned, not foreign militaries or governments. The next largest threat is "direct marketers" (read: junk mail and telemarketers) and "credit agencies" and data warehousers like Equifax.
I just got back (to the US) from a security and privacy conference in Canada where one large ISP/telco talked about the impact of privacy legislation on their business.
What they report is that the office of the Privacy Commissioner is strongly committed to protecting individual rights, and that if one customer complains then the company can be plunged into an expensive investigation.
Even nutcases get a careful hearing, apparently. Normal and semi-normal customers get responsive answers because the company is afraid of formal complaints.
The ISP will not turn over customer records, even to the tax authorities, without a court order or search warrant.
Sign at the conference: "If you don't need it, don't collect it!"
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." --Theodore Roosevelt (1918)
So the next time your dealer asks if you're a cop, and you're feeling spiteful, you can have not only turn him in, but also have him charged with violating the privacy act.
Laziness is a virtue, anyone who bothers to tell you otherwise, is clearly lacking it.
If income is private, and a potential employer says "tell us how much you were paid at your last job or we won't hire you", can you sue them into a dribbling pus?
OTOH, you could just move to canada. Have you noticed that Canada seems to be defending civil liberties when america strips them away?
Yes, while much of the US has their shorts in a knot over Janet Jackson's nipple, and the FCC wants even more draconian penalties for college radio stations that dare to broadcast the word f*ck, Canada rolls along, worrying about neither.
Trust me, 3PM on a school day is the best time to listen to hardcore punk rock!
Three Squirrels
Part of the problem with these electronics stores is uninformed staff, and part of the problem is, quite frankly, stupid customers.
I bought a wireless router and card from A&B sound (canuck retailer) last year, and the clerk insisted I give my name and address. I had a couple of hours to kill, so instead of the usual fake info, I decided to really press it with him. I think we argued for about 5 minutes steady about it (along the lines you were saying), when he finally told me "without your name and address, your warranty isn't valid".
Well! This really, really pissed me off, mostly because I know damn well what a manufacturer's warranty requires. I'm not 100% sure if it's law in Canada, but I'm pretty sure with proof of sale and the product, they're required to adhere to their warranties, regardless of "who" bought it. I think they guy finally gave up and entered some bullshit information (many stores actually can't process sales without a name and address now), but told me he'd put the sale though. As he bagged my gear and made change for me, he warned me again that I had no warranty on these items. I next asked if a manager was around, and if he'd ever heard of something called the Better Business Bureau. I guess this spooked him, we talked some more, and he finally let on what the problem was.
You need to have your name and address on file with them, OR a valid sales receipt. With the receipt, they don't care if you're Saddam Hussein returning the item. Without it, they just look at your driver's license as ID and process the return as normal. Apparently, a good chunk of their returns are from customers too stupid to keep receipts, and hence store policy is to get the info to avoid confrontations with the next stupid customer.
After this incident, I actually talked to a few store managers with brains at some other places, and it turns out this is almost universally true with electronics. Enough people don't have receipts (and stores hate dealing with hassle), so they've given up and just use name and address to track this stuff now.
A lot of times, we bring crap like this down on ourselves.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Now if they would just require the companies collecting your information to honestly identify themselves. With everybody outsourcing nowadays and with outsource companies absolutely refusing to identify what company they are, or what is worse and more common, blatantly lieing and denying that they are an outsource company at all, there is no accountability. And I have heard the two main sources of the most rapidly growing serious crime today (i.e. identity theft) are outsource companies and databases on the internet with insufficiently secure software. (Maybe they are the same source.)
Then when the crime is committed and hundreds of thousands of lives are destroyed, the company blames the outsource company, but you still never learn what outsource company it was, and the whole thing is hushed up so nothing is ever required to be done to prevent it from happening again.
At any rate this is what I've heard.
Hmmm. Maybe this is the same bank/PR company that writes those, "In order to serve you better, we have moved your local branch even further away from you, please do not try to contact a real person." while earning record profits every consecutive year.
Say you have a country with endemic racism (or sexism, ageism - any prejudice will do) and enact laws that say practicing such prejudice in, say, hiring procedure is illegal.
Unless you TRACK the problem (ie measure the race/sex/age of hiring in the example - then observance to law cannot be proved. And is therefore lip-service. These statistics are KEY to prosecution.
All of the classifications above are considered "secrets" under the Security of Information Act and is therefore illegal to disclose.
The reason you have laws like that because you have to.
People in US don't even have to have an ID - imagine living without one in Germany - you would be considered a criminal without having a goverment issued identification.
Frankly, I am not afraid of corporations at all - what scares me is the goverment and I have years of historical data to proof that my fear is not misplaced.
You over there in Europe are overly afraid of corporations while allowing goverment officials to literally run your lives for you.
I am in funeral services and PIPEDA has some interesting things people need to be aware of. For instance under the law all details about a funeral are private (ie name of the deceased, visitation, method of final dispositon) but when the family places a death notice in the local information then the information becomes public knowledge (but information like how much the funeral cost or cause of death is still private) So if you phone the funeral home and ask when the visitation is for John Doe then the funeral director can tell. If however the family does not place a death notice in a local newspaper then the funeral home needs explicit permission from the family to give out the information.
The other thing Canadians need to be aware of is the information retention policy of the business. So next time, some cashier asks for your mailing address ask them what their organization's document retention policy is and when the time period has expired how do they destroy the information. Also be aware that under PIPEDA, you have the right to refuse to give such information.
In the province of Ontario, funeral document retention policies are covered by PIPEDA and the Funeral Directors and Establishments Act. Legally, all funeral arrangments must be retained for at least 10 years. After 10 years a funeral home may destroy them. However, destroying them does not mean throwing them in the recycycling bin, they by law have to be destroyed using a paper shredder.
PIPEDA is something that IT professionals in Canada need to understand. If you build an app that stores personal information you should consider a document retention policy for the information and a destruction policy for the information. If your app. violates PIPEDA then the government could come down on you hard since the Canadian government takes personal information protection very seriously.
I just recently received a nice letter from my Canadian Internet provider telling me that I have had "excessive usage" -
We would like to advise you that there has been excessive usage on your ****'* **** **** Internet account which is in violation of our end user agreement with you. Under our agreement, you are required to use the service in a way that does not create an unusually large burden on our network.
When I call they cannot and refuse to tell me how much traffic is being used, if the traffic use continues, or even if I have managed to comply with the traffic limit, whatever this limit may be. Shouldn't they be forced to provide this information that they now have on file about me and my service?
Yes, I found a virus infected computer - it's been fdisk'ed, erased, and reinstalled however I think they need to provide this information on what my usage was, what type of traffic, direction of traffic (incoming, outgoing) etc...
And also, come to think of it, I do not think I have given explcit permission for this Internet Provider to send me email messages or to leave rude voice mails threatening to cut off my service...
Don Chery, a buffoon using slander to boost his name! He is nothing more than a Howard Stern of hokey! Working for a state paid TV station, it is always delicate for the politicians so it makes a lot of smoke but never any fire.
Result? From now on his speech will be delayed by 8 seconds instead of being live.
In your opinion this is restricting free speech? There is no "minder" behind him with a gun making sure he reads the "pre-approved" text. He still just says whatever slander he wish but now it is delayed for 8 seconds.
F'up Canadians how come nobody stops them?
Let's invade Canada and find all the WMD (Wavelength Media Delay) the population will thank us, and after that we can start broadcasting Howard Stern live in our own back yard!!!
[businesses must] supply you with a product or a service even if you refuse consent for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information unless the information is essential to the transaction'.
I don't know whether we have a law like this or not, but we can certainly do this, and some corporations make it easier than others.
When I found out that the buttload of junk mail and telemarketers contacting me at my previous address were using the same misspelled first name that the phone company had registered me by, I looked into things. I found out that you can demand they keep your information private, that is, not sell or share it whether or not you have an unlisted number. And I found the same with all the other services I looked into.
Some people have tried to do this, and had back talk from the phone company (both voice and via web page) claiming "Are you sure you want to withhold your registration from all services? We can't promise you'll receive all the services you desire if you do this." It's all smoke. The "services" are marketing contacts. If you stick to it and refuse, they aren't supposed to share anything.
I moved 4 months ago. This time I made sure all of them knew when we started out that I wanted my information kept private. None of them complained. In fact the phone company here, SBC, replied that asking that question was part of THEIR registration procedure, and we'd get to it soon. And we did -- they'd instituted it themselves. They also had a technical fix available, a filter that prevented any calls coming in with "Unknown Caller" in the caller ID. They're just not allowed.
Just to make sure that if it did happen, I knew who it came from, all of my services got a slightly differently misspelled name. I haven't got a single junk mail (other than previous tenants or "occupant"), telemaketer call, or spam in the whole time.
Doesn't do you much good as long as you are where you are, but if you move, keep these in mind.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Next time I get advertising from anywhere I should under the new law be able to find out how they got my address ... should be interesting as almost 90% of addressed advertising is without consent !! It would also apply to E-Mail ....
Of course the big problem is that if the information (name & address) is already available to the public.... which of course it is if you pay property taxes !!! then in that case they are not breaking the privacy laws
{ Pillar candles great for when the power fails and you cant see the keyboard..
I can't even file for unemployment insurance using Linux
You know Linux? Why would you need to fill an unemployment form? Just go to source forge or another reputable open source group and find a decent project to collaborate on! Bingo you have as much work as you want.
What? You found a project similar to your old job? Exactly the same? And the lead developer is in India and promises all kinds of great things with the resulting code?
You see at the end everything works out!
best. sig. ever.
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
How about those supermarket cardsyou are required to possess in order to receive substantial discounts on selected items?
The US has consistently criticized Canada's Privacy Act in each of the last 2 Global Terrorism Reports published annually by the State Department and presented to Congress, although the criticism in the 2003 report is muted compared to earlier versions.
... inhibit a fuller and more timely exchange of information and response to requests for assistance. Also, Canadian laws and regulations intended to protect Canadian citizens and landed immigrants from Government intrusion sometimes limit the depth of investigations. "
" US law-enforcement officers have expressed concern that Canadian privacy laws
Patterns Of Global Terrorism, Western Hemisphere Report, US State Department; April 30 2003; page 11
You mean these guys?
A country full of U.S.ers... what a hell!
Just escape to Canada!
I understand why they want to bo different.
The BOFH
These can be protected too... Aslong as yoiu take steps to not have them listed in a public directory such as the phone book... So If you win the lottery Move and change your number and get them unlisted and you are sure to evade those charity scoundrels that wont leave ya alone till you have donated all of your money. :)
Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
CSIS and the RCMP can collect any information about you without your knowladge if your being investigated for a crime... They can also share this information only with other investigating efforts that are crime related but only to Law enforcment.. So the act still has weight with them... They can't abuse and "leak" this information.
Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
CityTV also runs Fashion Television, a fashion show with frequent toplessness, something that would give most Americans/American networks 40 fits..
Good point! My bad.
at least by our agency - congratulations - by posting your resume in a public forum you've demonstrated that you are really unaware of how far or how long your own personal information will be available on the Internet. Clearly you will not be able to observe the data privacy and protection requirements of our clients.
and yes, on second thought - I think I will have some fries with that... and you missed a spot just over there (psych!)
To paraphrase Cherry: "French Canadians wear visors more often. This is wimpy." You think this is slander?
Cherry's been doing this exact schtick since the early 80's (at least). What's your opinion; the Government is just slow to learn, or has it become more wimpily PC over time?
You think if the Government didn't fund CBC, then the "Minister of Official Languages" wouldn't have his knickers all twisted? Maybe it should stop funding the network, then.
And you're wrong about the "minder". As you point out, he is exactly 8 seconds behind Cherry with his finger on the button.
Now, granted, I work at a chain store, so this varies from store to store in terms of membership requirements policies. I guess the policy is the same, but the neighbourhood determines how it's enforced(at the store in the richest neighbourhood in Canada, you just plain don't ever check a person's picture ID. It's always just by phone number. Interestingly, this is also where nobody blinks if they've racked up $100 in late charges). At my store, the requirements are a driver's license(some sort of picture ID), a credit card(we perform a $2.00 pre-authorization, which holds $2.00 for three days, then gives it back to make sure it's valid and active -- and yes, we have had instances with invalid credit cards), and if they don't have a credit card, then they need two additional pieces of government issued ID besides the driver's license. (SIN if they offer it, birth certificate, citizenship, health card...) Some stores that I've seen don't even use membership forms, which blows my mind...I mean, doesn't that mean that they haven't signed anything and technically don't have to bring anything back? I guess it hasn't come up yet.
Vast majority of people are ok with this. But I hate the arguers. I've thought about it myself, and I've made up my mind(for what it's worth) on why we need all this stuff -- and made sure it's valid: As a rental store, we're trusting you to bring our stuff back. If you don't, we still need it back, and we need to be able to find you to get our stuff back.
I had to deny rentals to a customer today because her phone number was not in service(we found out when we tried to call her on the late list to remind her her stuff was overdue). She gave the same phone number, I tried it again, and it still said not in service. So I said I couldn't rent to her without a working phone number, and she left.
Sometimes it seems harsh, but given the outrageous customer stuff that happens...I still can understand why the rules are there. It is an all-too-regular thing for people to come in to different stores(some with more lenient rental membership policies), rent 3-5 games, and go rent more games from three more stores, never to be heard from again. $70 game for $7. Not a bad deal. I wouldn't be surprised if we start making it a blanket policy to check the phone number at till every single time we sign up a new member.
So you're saying reasonable people roll over, unreasonable people stand up.
Hi folks, I actually work on Privacy Compliance issues in Toronto, so I've known about the Act coming for a while. For more information on Privacy legislation in Canada, there's an excellent site maintained by a lawyer in Ottawa: http://www.privacyinfo.ca/ In particular, check out the cases (decisions) that have been investigated by the Federal Privacy Commissioner. Seems that the banks and telecom companies are consistently the worst offenders of privacy laws. Radio Shack hasn't even shown up yet ;)
Ogmios
Next revisionist historians will be saying: "In the pioneering days of the internet, widespread compiler ownership was a myth. The majority of internet users did not own a compiler, much less know how to read the source..." :)
Combined with "In the wild parts of the IT world, a compiler was a simple way to put food on the table of your family. Now that software is intensively farmed in third world countries we have no use for heavy duty compilers in first world, urban areas."