Challenges with the Implementation of a Right to be Forgotten in Canada

Today, Eloïse Gratton, Partner and National Co-Leader, Privacy and Data Security Practice Group, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, and Jules Polonetsky, CEO, Future of Privacy Forum, filed a joint-submission paper to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), as part of their consultation and call for essays on online reputation ending today (April 28, 2016). The OPC has recently chosen reputation and privacy as one of its priorities for the next five years and is currently focusing its attention on the reputational risks stemming from the vast amount of personal information posted online and on existing and potential mechanisms for managing those risks. In January 2016, the OPC published a discussion paper, entitled “Online Reputation, What are they saying about me?” in which it asks if a right to be forgotten can find application in the Canadian context and if so, how.

The paper entitled “Privacy above all other Fundamental Rights? Challenges with the Implementation of a Right to be Forgotten in Canada” explores whether importing a right to be forgotten that would allow individuals to stop search engines from providing links to information deemed irrelevant, no longer relevant, inadequate or excessive would be advisable in Canada.

Read Eloïse’s full blog describing the paper.

Read article describing the paper in the Canadian Bar Association’s National Magazine