Ignore privacy commissioner, says PI lawyer
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- After a growing number of complaints against insurance companies, Canada’s privacy commissioner released guidelines to protect people against covert video surveillance, characterizing it as an “extremely privacy-invasive form of technology” to be considered “only in the most limited cases”.
“Covert surveillance is an intrusive act and if there are other means to resolve a dispute, we believe they should be explored first,” assistant commissioner Elizabeth Denham has told the Canwest News Service.
But lawyer Norman Groot, speaking for the Canadian Association of Private Investigators, says PIs needn’t be “deterred” by her views.
Privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddardt is “fending off a legal challenge” from State Farm Insurance, the largest property and casualty insurer in North America, “questioning her jurisdiction over investigations in the first place,” says Canwest.
The company wants the federal court to rule “personal information collected during these investigations, including copies of covert video surveillance reports and tapes, falls outside the scope of Canada’s private sector privacy law,” says the story, going on »»»
Following an investigation into the covert surveillance practices of a private investigation firm working on behalf of an insurance company, the privacy commissioner determined the complaint was well-founded and recommended the firm depersonalize or remove third parties caught on video without their consent.
In this case, a mother and daughter were videotaped during covert surveillance of the mother’s sister, who had begun legal proceedings against her insurer over her benefits following a car accident.
The privacy commissioner also found that the collection, use or disclosure of personal information about third parties without their consent is only acceptable in certain, specific situations â for example, when the information is relevant to the purpose of the collection of information about the subject of the surveillance.
The privacy commissioner declined to bring an application to Federal Court to enforce the recommendations even though the firm refused to implement the recommendations.
And that, Canwest has Groot saying, is worth remembering.
(Cheers, Chris)
Canwest News Service – Insurance firms tell privacy commissioner to butt out, November 10, 2009
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November 11th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
This was the orignal ruling that we had already bitched about here on this site (or I did at least):
http://www.priv.gc.ca/cf-dc/2009/2009_007_0504_e.cfm
Goes back a while. They just blew her off and blew her whole quasi-government department and role off.
Only makes the news now? eh, kind of late.
Big money will pull he strings on this ruling (and the puppeteers in parliament). Hence the no action by PrivCom.
That’s what happens when a quasi-gov agency/dept like PrivCom is toothless.
’scuse me as I go brush my tooth, which just happens to be one tooth more than what PrivCom has.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
And BTW, who are these insurance companies who have more powers than fucking CSIS does?
PrivCom is being treated as a joke, and being watered down by the very people they report to. It’s a shame that something that the world looks at with regard and respect can be treated like this and have no additional bite.
Guess the Corporation showed PrivCom who is boss when they can tell people in their klan to ignore them.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
So, lemme get this straight…
The industry that’s comprised of those making a living from questionable surveillance want pretty much everything they do to be considered “outside the scope” of our privacy laws.
Didn’t see that one comin’!
