Decision

Privacy Commissioner of Canada v Facebook Inc., 2023 FC 533

Justice Manson - 2023-04-13

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This is an application brought by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada under paragraph 15(a) of PIPEDA. The Commissioner alleges that Facebook breached PIPEDA through its practices of sharing Facebook users’ personal information with third-party applications hosted on the Facebook Platform. ... The Commissioner’s allegations follow an investigation of a PIPEDA complaint, brought in light of news reports that a third-party application, “thisisyourdigitallife” had obtained data through the Facebook Platform and subsequently disclosed it to a British research firm called “Cambridge Analytica”. ... The question for the Court is whether Facebook made reasonable efforts to ensure users and users’ Facebook friends were advised of the purposes for which their information would be used by third-party applications. ... There is no expert evidence as to what Facebook could feasibly do differently, nor is there any subjective evidence from Facebook users about their expectations of privacy or evidence that any user did not appreciate the privacy issues at stake when using Facebook. While such evidence may not be strictly necessary, it would have certainly enabled the Court to better assess the reasonableness of meaningful consent in an area where the standard for reasonableness and user expectations may be especially context dependent and are ever-evolving. ... I agree with Facebook; its safeguarding obligations end once information is disclosed to third-party applications.

Decision relates to:

 

Canadian Intellectual Property