CIPPIC and CBC can intervene in de-indexing case, court rules

Federal Court has said that both the CBC/Radio-Canada and the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa (CIPPIC) can intervene in a case that could help determine whether a Canadian “right to be forgotten” exists. In a decision issued Friday, the court ruled that both organizations could weigh in on the case in interventions no longer than 15 pages, while not introducing new evidence into the record. The case began when the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) asked the court whether or not it has the authority to order Alphabet Inc.'s Google to de-list particular results. In a blog post published Saturday, CIPPIC staff lawyer Tamir Israel wrote that the case could "reshape" Canadian privacy law. It will raise questions of "whether core features of the digital economy will continue” within the jurisdiction of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), he said. The OPC has argued that under PIPEDA there exists a right to de-indexing from search engines, akin to the European right to be forgotten. In letters to the OPC, Google has disagreed with the analysis, leading the OPC to seek a court reference in the matter. CIPPIC will argue in its intervention that the collection of user data by search engines constitutes "commercial activity" and should therefore be subject to federal privacy law. "‘Commercial activity’ must be defined in a manner that accounts for the integrated manner in which many e-commerce platforms, including search engines, are designed to broadly monetize user activity and Internet content," the organization argued in its application for leave to intervene in the case. The OPC has also asked the court to determine whether or not Google would be exempt from PIPEDA under an exemption for "journalistic activities," as PIPEDA does not apply to data collected and processed under the auspices of journalism. In the post on its website, CIPPIC says it will argue that excluding search engines from PIPEDA "through a 'journalism' classification will frustrate the purpose of PIPEDA, a law designed to regulate privacy in the digital age." The CBC, for its part, argued in its own application to intervene that de-indexing constitutes an "indirect attack" on the news service, and that the OPC's request for reference has the effect of applying PIPEDA to the CBC.

CIPPIC and CBC can intervene in de-indexing case, court rules

Brief | July 27, 2020

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CIPPIC and CBC can intervene in de-indexing case, court rules

Brief | July 27, 2020

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