Canada Introduces Privacy Reforms That Encourage Warrantless Disclosure of Info

An anonymous reader writes "Earlier this week, the government introduced the Digital Privacy Act (Bill S-4), the latest attempt to update Canada's private sector privacy law. Michael Geist reports that the bill includes a provision that could massively expand warrantless disclosure of personal information. Organizations will be permitted to disclose personal information without consent (and without a court order) to any organization that is investigating a contractual breach or possible violation of any law. This applies both past breaches or violations as well as potential future violations. Moreover, the disclosure occurs in secret without the knowledge of the affected person (who therefore cannot challenge the disclosure since they are not aware it is happening). Consider it a gift to copyright trolls, who won't need the courts to obtain information on thousands of Internet users."

Comments

Eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

You get what you vote for,

Re:Eh?

[Chrisq]

You get what you vote for,

If you call a choice of 2 with the same policies a choice ... and if you live somewhere your vote will make a difference (i.e. the result isn't a foregone conclusion)

Re:Eh?

[Mashiki]

You get what you vote for,

So we got it with the Liberals who were the first runners of this type of law, we got it with the conservatives, but they listened and killed the bills when the public said no way. Following with that, the courts have struck down various sections of the law already codified that allowed exigent circumstances. Seems to me that the system is working just fine up here in Canada. And in this case, I don't expect the law to make it in it's current form. It'll hit the senate, and end up back in the house, where it'll probably die at the end of the season.

Re:Eh?

[davecb]

We used to have four parties,
Left Left-Center Right-center Right
NDP Liberal Conservative Reform
plus a Quebec party, plus some oddballs.

We used to get lots of debate, and some very different suggestions from the NDP and Reform, which tended to keep the debate healthy.

Now we have Reform, renamed as the "Conservatives", a rump of the Liberals, and a invigorated NDP. The latter two split the left-center vote, the Reform party wins, and the policies look remarkably homogenized.

Bummer!

Re:Eh?

[dryeo]

62% of the Canadians who bothered to vote, voted against this government, so we have the tyranny of the minority. Luckily with the Fair Elections Act they're trying to make sure that many of those 62% won't be able to vote next election.

Re:Eh?

[mlts]

Democracy is showing its cracks here in the US. I've wondered about moving to a different system so we don't keep the same people in office for decades:

I'd propose it be done like jury duty: Come every four years, every citizen's name is tossed in a hat, names are drawn, and those people are sworn into office. No, this isn't perfect, and statistically, there is a chance of getting some real crazies... but is that worse than politicians bought and paid for by campaign donations? Statistically, it will give a true cross-section of the population. It will also get rid of gerrymandering and other crap.

This can be combined with a "no confidence" vote mechanism for further checks/balances.

Re:Eh?

[dryeo]

I've often thought about a similar idea here in Canada, except it being the Senate (appointed in Canada) that is made up of random people. Elected part of government still proposes laws and budgets but the Senate can shoot them down or force changes.
Problem is a lot of people just can't afford to take a few years away from home and work and they'd still be vulnerable to bribery such as the promise of a good easy job after their term was finished.

Re:Eh?

[Udom]

One major problem is our weak laws about lobbying. Lobbyists can wine and dine MPs constantly with little oversight. Even worse, if an MP votes the right way they can get a great job with the PR company when they leave office. So... vote for the spy bill, retire before the next election and immediately start work as Vice President for SFA at a salary of half a million a year. Canadian News media are being corrupted in the same way.

Re:Eh?

[davester666]

Yes, it's been the senate that has blocked some really horrible laws, [unfortunately, not because they were bad, but just passed by the 'other' party]. This Harper gov't has been doing it's best to reduce/eliminate the ability for people to do anything about the laws they pass, by just lumping them in one big omnibus bill, introducing it, then ramming it through parliament as fast as possible. "Oh, we have to lump everything together, because everything is linked together by the fact that they are in the same bill."

They might be fiscally conservative, and "tough on crime", but for stuff like this, the laws don't seem to be written here, but written by the US and just given to us with a "Here, enact this", with Harper going "Oh, yes, right away sir". The copyright-stuff was the same.

The current system could work better, but now it's being gamed by the parties so it is largely a 4-year at a time dictatorship.

So use it.

[Anonymous Coward]

EFF can now obtain the list of directors of patent troll organizations. Publish that and the public can file thousands of lawsuits, embarrass them, etc,

Politicians...

[Knightman]

I don't get it, are politicians born stupid or have their parents dropped them on their head (repeatedly) while they where young?

The possibility of abuse of this law if it's passed is mind-boggling. I do hope the Canadian people wakes up and take their politicians to task.

Re:Politicians...

[Anonymous Coward]

Stupid? They're power-hungry, and good at manipulating morons. They're especially good at it after some disaster strikes (e.g. after 9/11, they shoved through tons of legislation that violates the fundamental liberties of those in the US). Politicians are the same everywhere; manipulative, sociopathic assholes who take advantage of the ignorance and fear of the general public.

Re:Politicians...

[50000BTU_barbecue]

No, that's realtors.

Sorry, Canada

[LookIntoTheFuture]

* organizations could disclose subscriber or customer personal information without a court order to law enforcement with full legal immunity from liability
* organizations could disclose subscriber or customer personal information without a court order to any other organization claiming investigation of an actual or potential contractual breach or legal violation
* the disclosures would be kept secret from the affected individuals
* the disclosing organizations would be under no obligation to report on their practices or past disclosures

Wow. Good thing I live in the US where a citizens privacy is a high priority and its importance is well understood by our government.

Glad I'm not Canadian

[Roxoff]

Phew, lucky escape for me there. I live in the UK, where we're completely immune from lawmakers who things the rights of the corporation trump the rights of the individual. Oh, no, hang on. I might have that wrong....

Conversely, Judges...:

[davecb]

On April 8, 2004, the European Court of Justice – the highest court in the world’s largest economy – declared Data Retention to be an excusable violation of fundamental human rights. The court invalidated the entire directive (“EU federal law”) retroactively, making it have never existed. (courtesy Ricvk Falkvinge, https://www.privateinternetacc...

The EU and Canadian constitutions are sort of vaguely similar, so one can likely make the point that, even if the telcos are free to disclose, they're not allowed to keep much of the data the security services would want them to.

Re:Shakespeare, Orwell

[hoboroadie]

The English Language is a marvelous, mutable thing, is it not?