Federal (Canada) privacy & access decisions

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) investigated Agronomy Company of Canada Ltd. following a complaint alleging inadequate safeguards, lack of accountability, and invalid consent for personal information collection and use, stemming from a data breach. A malicious actor gained access to Agronomy's systems, exfiltrating sensitive personal information of 845 individuals, including SINs, financial details, and identification documents, before deploying ransomware. The OPC found Agronomy failed to implement appropriate safeguards, citing a lack of multifactor authentication, network segregation, data encryption, and detection tools, which contributed to the breach. Furthermore, Agronomy lacked a comprehensive privacy policy, a designated privacy officer, and adequate staff training, indicating a failure in accountability. While these two aspects were found well-founded, Agronomy committed to significant improvements, leading to a conditionally resolved outcome. However, the OPC found the complaint regarding invalid consent for credit services not well-founded, as the complainant had signed a clearly labelled credit application and utilized the extended credit.

• Whether Agronomy implemented appropriate safeguards to adequately protect personal information under its control, as per PIPEDA Principle 4.7.
• Whether Agronomy's technical safeguards (multifactor authentication, network segregation, data encryption, detection and response tools) were appropriate for the sensitivity of the information.
• Whether Agronomy's organizational safeguards (incident response protocols, information management, security documentation, staff training) were adequate.
• Whether Agronomy was accountable for personal information under its control, including designating an individual for PIPEDA compliance and implementing policies and practices, as per PIPEDA Principle 4.1.
• Whether Agronomy obtained valid and meaningful consent for the collection and use of personal information for credit services, particularly sensitive information, as per PIPEDA Principle 4.3.

The complainant alleged that Home Depot disclosed his personal information to Meta (formerly Facebook) without his knowledge and consent. Home Depot was sending in-store customers' hashed email addresses and purchase details to Meta via an "Offline Conversions" tool when customers requested an e-receipt. This data allowed Meta to measure ad effectiveness and use the information for its own business purposes, including targeted advertising. The OPC found that Home Depot failed to obtain valid consent, as its privacy statement was not readily available or sufficiently clear, and customers would not reasonably expect such disclosure. Home Depot discontinued the use of the tool in October 2022 in response to OPC recommendations. The complaint was deemed well-founded and resolved.

• Whether Home Depot obtained valid consent for disclosing customer personal information to Meta
• Whether the disclosure of personal information to Meta constituted a processing activity not requiring additional consent
• Whether Home Depot's Privacy Statement and Meta's Privacy Policy were sufficient to obtain meaningful implied consent
• Whether express opt-in consent was required for the disclosure of customer information to Meta
• Whether the information disclosed was sensitive
• Whether the disclosure was within the reasonable expectations of the individual
• Whether the ability to withdraw consent after the fact was sufficient