Alberta Court of Appeal Rules Licence Plate Information is Not Personal Information

In a majority judgment, the Alberta Court of Appeal (Court) has ruled that the Privacy Commissioner erred in finding that licence plate information is personal information, and that receiving and recording a driver’s licence and licence plate information to prevent fraudulent activity is a breach of Alberta’s Personal Information Privacy Act (PIPA). In dissent, Justice Conrad disagreed with the majority on both of these findings. The issue arose from a complaint made by Sharon Curtis, a customer of Leon’s Furniture (Leon’s), who objected to Leon’s employees collecting driver’s licence and licence plate information from her as they loaded a previously-paid-for table into her car. In reaching its conclusion that licence plate information is not personal information, the majority noted that such information is linked to a vehicle rather than to an individual, and that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a licence plate number since the number is displayed openly in public. In her dissenting reasons, Justice Conrad noted that licence plate information can be traced to an identifiable individual and that the reasonable expectation of privacy concept does not assist in the interpretation of statutes such as the PIPA. Although the “reasonable expectation of privacy” concept is useful in defining the exclusion zone for police under criminal statutes, said Justice Conrad, it is not relevant in the quite different task of restricting the spread of personal information, which is what lies at the heart of PIPA-like legislation. In concluding that the collection of information by Leon’s was justifiable, the majority relied on the necessity requirement outlined in section 7(2) of the PIPA. The majority found that it was reasonably necessary to collect the information given the legislative purpose of preventing or detecting fraud. Commentators have suggested that the majority’s finding may shift the scope of privacy protection in Canada and that an appeal to the Supreme Court may be expected. For the full text of the decision, see: Leon’s Furniture Limited v Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) 2011 ABCA 94 For commentary, visit: http://tinyurl.com/3celo26; and http://tinyurl.com/3zszrjh Summary by: Adam Lis