Details of the Legislation
The legislation proposed by the minister of consumer and business services:
• Would require express positive consent before any personal information could be used for any other purpose than completing the initial transaction (i.e., no additional marketing of additional goods or services to existing customers).
• Would require express positive consent before any personal information was disclosed to a third party for marketing purposes.
• Does not have a grandfathering provision. A marketer would have to contact all existing customers and get their express positive consent before sending them any further marketing material. In addition, anyone on a current list that is being rented or exchanged must be recontacted, and until that person has given express positive consent their name cannot be rented or exchanged. Nor would any list be available for rent until this process had been completed.
• Provides that transfer to an agent, even for data processing or lettershop work, cannot take place until the consumer had given express positive consent.
• Would impose a requirement that no personal information can be transferred outside of Ontario unless the other jurisdiction has an adequate privacy protection regime.
• Does not contain any protection for commercial proprietary information and requires full disclosure to a consumer of all places where the information has been transferred.
• Covers fundraising activities in the not-for-profit sector.
• Extends the definition of personal information to include any information about an individual that can be manipulated and used to identify or contact an individual.
• Does provide an exemption for the use, collection and disclosure of business information (name, title, address including e-mail) without the consent of the individual.
Source: Canadian Marketing Association
