Supreme Court of Canada Finds Individuals Have a Privacy Interest in Their IP Addresses

In R. v. Bykovets, released on March 1, 2024, the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada (Court) found that individuals have a privacy interest in their internet protocol (IP) addresses. The issue arose in the context of the Court’s consideration as to whether police had breached section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights…

Supreme Court of Canada Recognizes Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Digital Communications

There has been significant discussion of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions in R v Jones and R v Marakah – cases in which the Court recognized a reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages that police obtained from others. In Jones, the police obtained messages from a telecom company and in Marakah the police…

2014 Summer Edition

Focus on Information Management and Privacy Information and privacy – the HR sphere and beyond Legal Developments A diminished expectation: computer use policies and privacy in the post- world New policy sheds light on gender discrimination prevention People Privacy, please Download PDF

Privacy Rights vs. Union’s Duty to Represent its Membership: The Bernard Case Concludes

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal in Bernard v. Canada (Attorney General), thus ending the “legal odyssey” of an employee who did not want her personal information disclosed to the unions which she declined to join during her years of employment with the federal government, but to which she was mandatorily obligated to…

Frank Cesario Quoted in Law Times

Hicks Morley’s Frank Cesario was quoted in the January 21, 2013 edition of Law Times magazine in an article entitled “Cole prompts vigorous debate on privacy at work”. The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in R v. Cole suggests that employees do retain some reasonable expectation of privacy in personal data stored on employer-owned…

Supreme Court of Canada Discusses the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Workplace Computer

The Supreme Court of Canada has issued a significant decision regarding workplace privacy. In R. v. Cole, it unanimously held that employees have a diminished, but reasonable, expectation of privacy in personal information stored on an employer-issued computer. Employers may continue to access information stored on their work systems for their legitimate purposes, though they…

Supreme Court of Canada Renders Decision on Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Workplace Computer

The Supreme Court of Canada rendered R. v. Cole in which it unanimously held that employees have a diminished but reasonable expectation of privacy in the use of their workplace computers. This case involved a warrantless police search of the accused’s workplace computer, which contained materials alleged to be child pornography. That evidence was excluded…

Ten Questions and Answers about Computer Use Policies

It’s January 2012. Last year the Court of Appeal for Ontario recognized that an employee had a reasonable expectation of privacy that arose out of his personal use of a work computer. As discussed in a companion FTR Now called How the New Privacy Tort Will Affect Employers, this month the Court of Appeal recognized…