Guidance on Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s role in enforcing Canada’s Anti-SPAM Legislation

The enforcement of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), which came in to force last summer, is shared among the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the federal Competition Bureau, and Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) of Canada. CASL governs the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages, alteration of transmission data, and installation of malicious software.

The majority of the enforcement activities relating to CASL will be carried out by the CRTC. The Competition Bureau will focus on addressing false and misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices online, and the OPC will focus on aspects relating to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). To help clarify its role, the OPC has outlined its involvement in enforcing CASL on its website.

The OPC will have two main areas of enforcement. It will be in charge of investigating offences relating to the: (1) harvesting of electronic addresses through automated means, and (2) collection of personal information through illicit access to computer systems (eg spyware). Harvesting electronic addresses (eg email addresses) is usually done to create address lists for spammers to send out mass emails. Activities involved in collecting personal information include the use of malware (eg viruses, Trojans, worms, etc) to capture keystrokes from a user’s computer in order to obtain information such as passwords and credit card numbers.

The OPC stresses that complaints dealing with electronic harvesting or illegal collection of personal information should be sent to the Spam Reporting Centre, rather than the OPC directly. This way, information can be collected at a single source allowing for a more informed and effective investigation into complaints.

For more information please see: http://tinyurl.com/lagqb4m