From Newswire.ca
Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian - invoking for the first time a cease collection and destroy records provision in Ontario privacy laws - today ordered the City of Ottawaand the Ottawa Police to stop collecting extensive personal information from individuals selling used goods to second-hand stores. She also ordered the destruction of all personal information already collected.
Her cease and desist Order follows an investigation into a privacy complaint the Commissioner received in the wake of the Court of Appeal rulingin the Cash Converters case in July. That ruling struck down portions of a City of Oshawa bylaw that had required used-goods retailers to collect extensive personal information from all customers seeking to sell second-handgoods. Key sections of the Ottawa bylaw are similar to those of the Oshawa bylaw that was recently struck down by the Court.
In her Order, the Commissioner cites representations made to her by the Ottawa Police regarding Business Watch International (BWI), a Regina-based company that developed software that used goods stores can use to send detailed personal information of sellers directly to BWI. The company maintains a large electronic database on behalf of the Ottawa Police that includes more than a quarter-of-a-million used good transactions, involving more than 44,000 identifiable individuals.
"In my view," said Commissioner Cavoukian, "the creation and maintenanceof this database constitutes a grave infringement to the privacy rights of individuals. The police are not required to obtain a warrant or demonstrateany suspicion of wrongdoing, in order to access this database, while every individual who sells an item to a second-hand goods store may become subject to scrutiny by the police, even though it is clear that the vast majority are innocent, law-abiding citizens who have committed no offence."
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto
Visit our Toronto Law Firm website, www.wiselaw.net
EMPLOYMENT LAW • CIVIL LITIGATION • WILLS AND ESTATES • FAMILY LAW & DIVORCE
No comments:
Post a Comment