Provincial private sector privacy laws will also be affected The Supreme Court of Canada has blown away the underpinnings of the federal government’s online spying legislation, but the effects will be much wider.In a decision handed down last week, the Court found that contrary to the statements by a number of government officials and lawyers, […]

Thanks to funding from the federal Privacy Commissioner’s Contributions Program, FIPA is launching a year-long study to examine the effect of electronic monitoring systems in our vehicles, on our privacy rights and consumer choice. Our vehicles are no longer simple mechanical devices which provide us with transportation, but electronic platforms capable of remarkable feats. This […]

BC FIPA has weighed in on the side of privacy in the debate over the implementation of the American Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in this country. In our submission to a consultation by the federal Ministry of Finance on the deal signed last month between Canada and the US, we highlighted the damage […]

The Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC is conducting an investigation into police information checks, due to concern that the information currently included in police checks is so broad that it is almost impossible to imagine circumstances that would justify releasing it to potential employers. We have some major concerns with the kinds of information […]

PROPOSED CHANGES WOULD RADICALLY ALTER FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW Your privacy is at risk as never before in B.C., and the immediate threat isn’t coming from Facebook or Canada’s spy agency – it’s a bill before the B.C. legislature. Without consulting you, our premier and a gaggle of techno-bureaucrats have decided to sacrifice B.C.’s privacy […]

FIPA and the BC Civil Liberties Association are raising the alarm over amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act introduced yesterday. “The government has decided on a policy to massively increase the personal information collected, stored and shared with others,” said Micheal Vonn, Policy Director of the BCCLA. “Yet, projects like […]

FIPA has joined with CIPPIC and other Canadian rights groups to send an open letter to the House of Commons ETHI Committee calling for thorough review of Bill C-29, cynically titled the ‘Safeguarding Canadian’s Personal Information Act’. Bill C-29 proposes a number of amendments to Canada’s federal privacy protection statute, the Personal Information Protection and […]

This week a shocking case was revealed in which the sensitive personal information of a federal government critic was examined by hundreds of government employees. According to the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, the BC government is moving forward with unprecedented plans for personal information sharing that will make this kind of privacy […]

Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press Confidential medical and financial information belonging to an outspoken critic of Veterans Affairs, including part of a psychiatrist’s report, found its way into the briefing notes of a cabinet minister. Highly personal information about Sean Bruyea was contained in a 13-page briefing note prepared by bureaucrats in 2006 for then-minister Greg […]

The unanimous report handed down by the Special Committee reviewing BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act has a lot of positive recommendations, but a few recommendations could be huge problems for FOI and privacy rights in this province. First, the good stuff. The committee has repeated a number of the recommendations of […]

From the Tyee The British Columbia government’s push for greater power to collect and widely share citizens’ personal information should be refused given the province’s dismal recent record at protecting privacy, acting information and privacy commissioner Paul Fraser on Wednesday told a committee reviewing British Columbia’s freedom of information and protection of privacy act. “The […]

The BC government is ploughing ahead with a massive data-matching program that will centralize control of all the personal information obtained from citizens who receive government services, despite the fact they have not completed a legally-required Privacy Impact Assessment. Both FIPA and the Information and Privacy Commissioner have been informed that no Privacy Impact Assessment […]