Thursday, January 30, 2003

Identity Theft - How Secure is Your Personal Data A hard drive containing personal data on hundreds of thousands of individuals was stolen last week. The drive contained individuals' social insurance numbers, banking information and pension data. The information could be used for identity theft. 4:32:44 PM    comment []

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Issues Urgent Warning "The fundamental human right of privacy in Canada is under assault as never before. Unless the Government of Canada is quickly dissuaded from its present course by Parliamentary action and public insistence, we are on a path that may well lead to the permanent loss not only of privacy rights that we take for granted but also of important elements of freedom as we now know it. " Full Report 4:21:36 PM    comment []

Elections in Four Time Zones During elections, Canadian polls close at different times in different time zones.  Unfortunately, this means that the election could be decided shortly after polls close in Ontario and Quebec, three hours before the polls close in British Columbia. In an effort to limit the impact on those going to the polls in the later time zones, the Elections Canada Act prohibits the making of election results public before the polls close in the local jurisdiction (It makes for some interesting reporting on the national newscasts). This creates problems in internet time.  Paul Bryan was charged with "premature transmission" (no, I could not have made that up), for reporting the 2000 election results from the east coast long before the B.C. polls were to close.  On January 29, the B.C. Provincial Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional infringement on freedom of expression.  4:17:54 PM    comment []

Restricting Access to Data You Publish on the Web The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has commented that a web site operator can limit the authorization for access to data openly available on the site.  As long as there is an explicit statement, the access to data can be limited.  Such statement could determine whether a party "exceeds authorized access" in contravention of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  This will have implications for automated data mining bots and most web surfers who routinely skip the legal notice pages.  Just because the information is sitting there, unprotected, on the web, does not mean you can use it.  EF Cultural Travel v. Zefer Via Findlaw   3:21:32 PM    comment []

Jurisdiction - via the Web Does operation of a web site create personal jurisdiction? Excellent analysis of jurisdiction by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit "The mere operation of a commercially interactive web site should not subject the operator to jurisdiction anywhere in the world." Link via How Appealing 2:36:35 PM    comment []

Plebiscite Overrides VLT Agreements The SCC holds that a provincial law permitting local plebiscites to determine whether VLT's (video lottery terminals) could be offered in a municipality was intra vires and constitutional.  The plebiscite had the effect of terminating previously granted VLT agreements in the municipality.  Siemens v. Manitoba (Attorney General) [2002] S.C.J. No. 69 2003 SCC 3 1:40:13 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Michael Girard.

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