“The intent and principles of PIPEDA line up almost perfectly with genealogical emphasis about privacy protection and the ethics surrounding that, but the genealogical societies do not seem to be aware that it could be a fantastic tool in ensuring those ethics are followed and are caught up instead in determining whether or not they are bound by the legislation. In my opinion PIPEDA needs to be embraced and it's principles entrenched into genealogical societies' policies and practices.”

September 7, 2013
G. Alvin Murray, Certified Saskatchewan Instructor, CCSG

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The following was taken from R. v. Dyment, [1988] 2 SCR 417, as reproduced at http://canlii.ca/t/1ftc6:

“22. Finally, there is privacy in relation to information. This too is based on the notion of the dignity and integrity of the individual. As the Task Force put it (p. 13): "This notion of privacy derives from the assumption that all information about a person is in a fundamental way his own, for him to communicate or retain for himself as he sees fit." In modern society, especially, retention of information about oneself is extremely important. We may, for one reason or another, wish or be compelled to reveal such information, but situations abound where the reasonable expectations of the individual that the information shall remain confidential to the persons to whom, and restricted to the purposes for which it is divulged, must be protected. Governments at all levels have in recent years recognized this and have devised rules and regulations to restrict the uses of information collected by them to those for which it was obtained; see, for example, the Privacy Act, S.C. 1980-81-82-83, c. 111.

23. One further general point must be made, and that is that if the privacy of the individual is to be protected, we cannot afford to wait to vindicate it only after it has been violated. . . . Invasions of privacy must be prevented, and where privacy is outweighed by other societal claims, there must be clear rules setting forth the conditions in which it can be violated.” (Emphasis added)

From http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1997/1997canlii358/1997canlii358.html, at paragraph 67, in the case of Dagg v. Canada (Minister of Finance), [1997] 2 SCR 403, we learn that the Supreme Court of Canada also invites us to consider R. v. Duarte, 1990 CanLII 150 (SCC), [1990] 1 S.C.R. 30, at p. 46 (“privacy may be defined as the right of the individual to determine for himself when, how, and to what extent he will release personal information about himself”); (and) R. v. Osolin, 1993 CanLII 54 (SCC), [1993] 4 S.C.R. 595, at pp. 613-15 (per L’Heureux-DubĂ© J., dissenting); Westin, supra, at p. 7 (“[p]rivacy is the claim of individuals . . . to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others”); (and) Charles Fried, “Privacy” (1968), 77 Yale L.J. 475, at p. 483 (“[p]rivacy . . . is control over knowledge about oneself”).

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The design of this site is to readily afford access to ‘research tools’ that may be used to answer the question which asks if the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society (SGS), and certain other genealogical societies, are or are not limited by the terms and provisions of The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) when indiscriminately collecting and selling personal information about those “in the land of the living.”

Monday, September 2, 2013

Re: Aggregation of personal information

I think it will be interesting and useful to list all of the practical reasons we can think of that suggest why forbidding republication of our personal information is a wise thing to do.  Today’s CBC news broadcast reveals one that I never would have thought about, except for the publicly expressed concerns of two sisters in BC.

Pharmacies, doctors fail to stop narcotic shopping spree
Identity theft victims impersonated for years want accountability
By Kathy Tomlinson, CBC News
Posted: Sep 2, 2013 2:03 AM PT

“Two sisters in B.C. are going public to expose what they see as a big hole in the health system after a drug addict was able use their identities to get thousands of taxpayer-funded prescription narcotic pills.   . . .   The sisters realized their old friend knew their information — enough to get their personal health numbers (PHN) from any pharmacist willing to look it up.   . . .   “All she had to do was use my full name, my date of birth and my address and say, ‘Oh I misplaced my care card’ (said one of the sisters). Because you are already in the system, they just type it in and OK, yup, no problem,” said Lisa.  . . .   The imposter could then give that PHN at any doctor’s office or pharmacy to access services, claiming she lost her ID.   . . .    “There’s so many ways that people actually steal people’s identities and people’s health cards,” said Calder (who was interviewed after the sisters filed their complaint). “People are dying from this. People are dying from doctors being duped or conned. People are dying from abusing these drugs and there has to be a solution.”

More can be found by using the link that is indicated above.

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