Creativity Life Cycles : Canadian Trademark Agent and Lawyer : Joshua MacFadden : MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman Law Firm : Patents, Intellectual Property

Responding to pressure from Facebook users, privacy advocates and government representatives worldwide (including a report from Canada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner), as well as a growing campaign culminating in today's "Quit Facebook Day" campaign, (started by Canadians Joseph Dee and Matthew Milan), Facebook Inc. has announced changes to allow for simplified  privacy controls by its users. 

There are three central aspects to the new privacy changes (see Facebook explanation here):

(1) users can now control their privacy with just one setting thereby allowing users to quickly and simply control who can access their shared information;

(2) Facebook reduced the amount of information that a user must share in order to have an account. Now only your name, profile picture, gender, and networks must be public.

(3) users now have the ability to control which third party applications can access their personal information.

While most commentators suggest this is certainly a step in the right direction, further changes are probably required.  One potential problem is that users cannot prevent others from tagging them in photos. These changes do not address Facebook’s collection and use of user’s personal information for behavioural advertising purposes. Activists still argue for increased regulatory oversight to protect user’s private information on social networking platforms. Facebook appears to be a litmus test for how privacy will be regulated in the future, so other industry players are certainly watching closely. 

For further discussion on the privacy issues as they relate to privacy and Facebook, see:  The Globe & Mail and the recent opinion piece and excellent summary on this issue by Ian Kerr in the Ottawa Citizen appropriately entitled "The Devil is in the Defaults".  For additional information regarding Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg's own opinion piece in The Washington Post entitled "From Facebook, answering privacy concerns with new settings".  CBC radio host Nora Young discussed these developments with Debbie Frost, Facebook's Director of International Communications and Public Policy on her program Spark which has a podcast from the May 28, 2010 episode.

Many thanks to the contributions of Scott Masson, student-at-law, MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP

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On October 27, 2009 Bill 54, involving proposed amendments to the Personal Information Protection Act ("PIPA"), passed first reading in the Alberta Legislature.  While generally seen as a fine-tuning of PIPA, the highlights of the Bill include:

• requiring that organizations notify the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner where a privacy breach has occurred that could result in harm to an individual (it will be an offence for organizations to fail to notify the Commissioner's office in such circumstances);
• requiring that individuals be notified when an organization will be transferring personal information to a service provider outside of Canada (for example, where utilizing a an international call centre for post-purchase services, outsourcing processing of credit card transactions, etc.);
• enabling employers to retain certain personal information concerning former employees without consent, as necessary to manage the post-employment relationship; and
• allow local governments and professional regulatory organizations to pass by-laws and legislative instruments that allow for collection, use or disclosure of personal information without consent. Professional regulatory organizations may also pass legislative instruments appointing mediators or arbitrators, where personal information collected or created within such arbitration or mediation may be shielded from an access request

In view of these developments, organizations that collect personal information should continue to monitor the status of Bill 54 with a view to updating to their privacy-related practices and policies should the Bill come into force.

                                                                              UPDATE

On November 26, 2009 Bill 54 received Royal Assent.  The Bill will come into force once proclaimed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta.

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