Federal (Canada) Privacy Decisions

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) investigated a complaint regarding an equipment store's policy of photocopying customers' driver's licences as a condition of renting equipment. The OPC advised the store that driver's licences contain excessive personal information and have minimal value in theft investigations. As a result of the OPC's involvement, the store discontinued the practice and implemented a less privacy-invasive solution, resolving the complaint to the complainant's satisfaction.

• Appropriateness of collecting driver's licence information for theft prevention.
• Necessity of photocopying driver's licences for equipment rentals.
• Compliance with principles of minimal information collection.

An individual complained to the OPC after an internet search engine continued to display her résumé and personal information, even after she had it removed from the original job posting site. The search engine initially did not comply with her requests to remove the information. The OPC intervened, and the search engine subsequently removed the cached copy of the information using its URL removal tool.

• Right to withdraw consent for use/disclosure of personal information
• Search engine's obligation to de-index personal information
• Effectiveness of search engine URL removal tools

An individual complained to the OPC after a telecommunications firm disclosed his personal account and debt information to his tenant without his consent. The firm had merged the landlord's account with the new tenant's account when the tenant opened his own account. The firm accepted responsibility, corrected the accounts, and made amends with the landlord, leading to the early resolution of the complaint.

• Disclosure of personal information without consent
• Merging of accounts belonging to different individuals
• Collection of debt without proper verification

A doctor complained that his access request to a professional organization for personal information was ignored. The organization confirmed they did not act on the request, but also stated that the presentation the information was to be used for was cancelled, meaning no personal information was collected or held. The complainant accepted this and the file was closed as early resolved.

• Timeliness of access requests
• Existence of personal information