Canadian privacy & access decisions

A member of a not-for-profit association complained that the association required a second piece of identification, in addition to his membership card, to obtain member discounts. The complainant believed his membership card should be sufficient and that collecting further personal information was unwarranted. The association explained that it had legal agreements with vendors requiring it to sell discounted products only to current members. Due to some members loaning their cards to non-members, which caused legal and revenue issues, the association implemented the supplementary identification requirement to confirm identity and prevent misuse. The association also noted that members could choose their secondary identification and that this information was not recorded. The complainant was satisfied with this explanation, and the complaint was settled.

• Whether requiring supplementary identification for member discounts was an unwarranted collection of personal information
• Whether the membership card alone was sufficient identification