Privacy law

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Privacy law is the area of law concerning the use of personal information. Governments and other organizations collect vast amounts of personal information for a variety of purposes. The law of privacy limits how these organizations can collect and use this information.

[edit] Australia

In Australia, the federal Privacy Act 1988 protects personal information held by the government from disclosure and misuse.

[edit] Canada

In Canada, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act governs the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in connection with commercial activities and personal information about employees of federal works, undertakings and businesses. It generally does not apply to non-commercial organizations or provincial governments. Personal information collected, used and disclosed by the federal government and many crown corporations is governed by the Privacy Act. Many provinces have enacted similar provincial legislation such as the Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act which applies to public bodies in that province.

There remains some debate whether there exists a common law tort for breach of privacy. There have been a number of cases identifying a common law right to privacy but the requirements have not been articulated. ^[1]