FC: Canadian activist files first suit over phone number privacy

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Aug 07 2002 - 23:22:31 PDT

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    ---
    
    From: [deleted]
    To: declanat_private
    Subject: Meet Canada's first privacy plaintiff, IT Business Article
    Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 10:51:54 -0400
    
    Hi Declan,
    
    If you distribute this, please show my gwilly.ca email address below, and
    not the address from which I'm sending.
    
    Is the case below just another complaint about a $2 phone bill charge, or a
    fundamental question about who controls your personal information?  I take
    issue with those who dismiss the case as trivial.  Why is publication of
    personal phone numbers the default option?  And what justifies a monthly fee
    for non-publication?  You don't need to think very hard to come up with
    compelling cases for free non-listing: harassment, stalking, abuse, and just
    plain wanting to be left the hell alone.
    
    Adam Scott
    ascottat_private
    www.gwilly.ca/357
    
    -------------------------------------------
    
    http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&lid=1&sid=49507#
    
    IT Business  Meet Canada's first privacy plaintiff
    
       by Paul Fruitman
    
    
    Matthew Englander couldn't wait two minutes to test the limits of Canada's
    Personal
    Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
    
      At 12:01 a.m., on Jan. 1, 2001 -- the day the act's first stage was
    implemented -- Privacy
      Commissioner of Canada general counsel Heather Black says Englander was
    among the first to file a complaint under the new legislation.  A Vancouver
    lawyer, Englander took issue with Telus Corp., claiming the
    telecommunications company discloses the names, addresses and phone numbers
    of its customers in its White Pages and directories without their consent.
    Englander also objected to the fee Telus charges to customers who want to
    keep that information unlisted.
    
    But Canada's Privacy Commissioner, George Radwanski, didn't see much merit
    in Englander's case. He found that Telus' actions passed the Act's
    Reasonable Person Test, which states the "collection, use and disclosure of
    personal information must be limited to purposes that a reasonable person
    would consider appropriate in the circumstances."
    
      Undeterred, Englander has exercised his right under section 14 of PIPEDA
    and applied for a
      federal court hearing on the matter. The case, which will be heard this
    fall, could set a precedent
      with respect to how much privacy Canadians can legitimately expect. It also
    comes at a time,
      experts say, when the very idea of privacy is being squeezed on one side by
    information-hungry
      marketers and data miners and on the other by the post-Sept. 11 government
    zeal for security.
      Black says it is one of only three such cases to go to court so far.
    [...]
    
    
    
    
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