You may have seen the recent news release by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner that Tim Horton’s, the very popular coffee and food chain was using their app that customers of their company would download and add to their smart phones, was being used to track their every movement even when the app was not being used. unbelieveable violation of a person’s right to privacy.
The OPC unfortunately has very little power to issue any type of fine or punishment as the current wording of the PIPEDA legislation has no real teeth. The government needs to reintroduce the new privacy law into Parliament and get it passed which will have for instance financial penalties of up to 3 or 4% of world income for the violating company. It is desperately needed to ensure that companies do not make these kinds of mistakes which are clearly intentional.
