CIPPIC files complaint against info-broker

CIPPIC has filed a complaint under the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act against a Canadian data-broker. In its complaint, CIPPIC alleges that InfoCanada combines publicly available data from telephone books with geographically aggregated demographic data from Statistics Canada, to compile lists of individuals by demographic feature, for sale to marketers. CIPPIC argues that this act of data-matching invokes PIPEDA, and that InfoCanada fails to obtain the consent of individuals to its use and sale of their personal information, however inaccurate, contrary to PIPEDA.