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Study Says DRM Violates Canadian Privacy Laws
inkslinger77 writes "DRM technology used in consumer media may be violating Canadian privacy laws, according to a new report. The study, done by University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, found that a number of services like iTunes, Visio, and Symantec's North SystemWorks require too much personal information in order to verify their users. 'Another issue cited by [study lead investigator David Fewer] concerned the disclosure of DRM-collected personal information from users of Intuit's QuickTax software."It wasn't the use of QuickTax itself that triggered the concern, but rather the use of Intuit's online filing service where we found buried in one of the disclosures the notice that, as an international corporation, Intuit would send information across the border," Fewer said.'"
Yeah, that's an interesting bit.
The "free enterprise" party who govern the province I live in contracted the maintenance of our health care records out to a US firm, completely oblivious of the fact that - thanks to the PATRIOT ACT - the company could be compelled to turn our information over to the eff-bee-eye or the en-essay or one of those other alphabet agencies they've got down there, and it's illegal for them to tell us (their customer) when this takes place.
I know this will sound like "well duh" to those in the US, but my Canadian brain has a hard time wrapping itself around the concept.
I don't care why you're posting AC
We're talking about Canada, not the US... in Canada things are not decided by suing people, they're decided by people sitting down and discussing the issue until a solution is found... and then debating it for years before putting it into law. Since the PIPEDA already exists, this study will be enough of a deterrent for most individuals and companies -- except maybe some US companies who think they're above the law and can do what they want. At which point, the Canadian Government steps in and sues them on behalf of the people.
...but they're both quadrilaterals.
In the name of DRM, we have CDs equipped with rootkits, we have personally-identifiable information being sent over international borders, we have music players phoning home to say what they're playing or storing...of COURSE DRM technology can collect private data. If the implementors of Digital Rights Management want to MICRO-manage those rights they obviously have to know exactly who's rights they're managing. That obviously means having to demand a certain level of disclosure from end users.
To say DRM and privacy are not at least related is naive. DRM might only be tracking your usage of digital media so it can allow or deny access, but it's still tracking you, and that leaves the technology open to abuse by people who wish to turn DRM into something more than it was intended to be.