BC Privacy Commissioner Upholds Store Return Policy of Collecting Personal Information

In a decision released May 25, 2005, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (Commissioner) held that a store's return policy of requiring customers to provide their name, address, and telephone number complies with BC's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). The issue in the case was whether PIPA permits a retail organization to require someone who is returning goods to provide identifying personal information for the purpose of combating fraudulent return of goods. The Commissioner found that there was a real, not merely perceived, problem with fraudulent returns of stolen goods and that the personal information was collected and used to detect and deter fraudulent returns of goods as part of the organization's loss-reduction strategy. This was not a case where an organization sought to collect personal information to use it as an asset or for a collateral advantage. The organization did not disclose the personal information to anyone else, except to the police for fraud or theft investigations. Furthermore, the type of personal information collected was considered to be non-sensitive in nature since this kind of information was generally publicly available in telephone directories. Based on these findings, the Commissioner concluded that the organization's fraud and loss prevention purpose for collecting and using identifying personal information was appropriate in the circumstances. The same conclusion was reached regarding collection for customer satisfaction and refund error management purposes. However, the Commissioner held that the organization could not require individuals to provide such personal information for the purpose of customer satisfaction follow-up and that the organization could not retain the personal information indefinitely. Although the Commissioner did not suggest a retention period, he requested that the organization formulate and implement such a schedule in compliance with PIPA. For a copy of the decision, visit: http://tinyurl.com/bdxdj For more information, see: http://tinyurl.com/8k4rt Summary by: Nicholas Wong