privacy legislation

Recent report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics

March 5, 2018 Christina Catenacci Employee Relations, Human Resources, Payroll, Privacy and Security

Employers who are governed by PIPEDA are recommended to remain informed on these issues because some of the above-mentioned recommendations may become part of future legislative and policy initiatives.

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Privacy Commissioner’s discussion regarding social networking in the workplace and privacy issues

October 6, 2016 Christina Catenacci Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR and Technology, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Penalties and Fines, Privacy and Security, Union Relations

You may be familiar with social networking sites that provide individuals with opportunities to create a personal profile and ways to interact with each other online. Some of these sites include MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Twitter and Bebo, to name a few. The Privacy Commissioner has created a document you may not be aware of that discusses privacy implications for employees who use social networking in the workplace.

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Can employers publicize terminations via social media? Dallas’ police chief says yes

January 10, 2014 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources

In the name of transparency and building public confidence in the local police force, Dallas police chief David O. Brown has begun posting announcements of staff terminations and demotions on the social networking services Twitter and Facebook. Chief Brown is surely blazing a trail with the controversial practice, but it remains to be seen whether others will follow—or if it’s even legal…

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Invasion of personal privacy

February 22, 2012 Earl Altman Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security

The Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Jones v. Tsige deals with a novel claim, one for damages for invasion of personal privacy. This decision has garnered a great deal of comment in the popular press in the time since its release. Is the decision as radical as some writers have suggested? What are the implications for privacy rights in Ontario, and, in particular, the conduct of employers and employees?

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Strengthen personal data security; avoid the Sony experience

May 4, 2011 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Human Resources, Privacy and Security

Customers and employees entrust their personal information to businesses on a daily basis and expect that these businesses will treat that information with the care and respect it deserves by implementing the proper safeguards to keep it safe. However, just recently…

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Customer privacy policies and employee handling of customer personal information

June 23, 2010 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Human Resources, Privacy and Security

A weekend Toronto Star article reported that employees at the Canada Revenue Agency are improperly reviewing the private financial affairs of taxpayers. Some are using agency computers to give favoured treatment to colleagues, friends, family—and themselves…

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Privacy risk management – by design

June 10, 2010 Colin Braithwaite Human Resources, Privacy and Security

I’ve discussed the Privacy by Design principle before, in the Inside Internal Control newsletter. In case you don’t know, PbD is an approach developed by Dr. Ann Cavoukian, the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, which proactively embeds privacy protection by default in the design of an organization’s practices and products.

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Background checks: Of job applications and credit checks

March 2, 2010 Adam Gorley Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring

Starting in 2006, Mark’s Work Wearhouse in Alberta was running background credit checks on employees looking for work at the clothing store. Not criminal record checks; not general reference checks; credit checks.

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Don’t underestimate conflicts that arise from harassment

January 29, 2010 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Health and Safety, Human Resources

One other session I attended at the 2010 Ontario HRPA conference was Andrew Lawson’s on Protecting your organization from the workplace bully. He made a couple of good points on the topic of workplace harassment that I would like to share with you.

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Disclosing persons with a history of violence

January 27, 2010 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Health and Safety, Human Resources

The Ontario Occupational Health and safety Act violence and harassment prevention provisions (Bill 168) require employers to provide information, including personal information, about a person with a history of violent behaviour if:

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