What Laws Apply to Spam, Spyware and Other Malware?

Some links on this page take you outside of our web site. To return, please use your web browser's back button.

Privacy laws, consumer protection laws and criminal law may be applicable to spam, spyware and other malware.  These laws are discussed below.

Privacy Laws

• The Personal Information Protection Act (BC)  (PIPA)

• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) (PIPEDA)

According to both PIPA (BC) and PIPEDA, you cannot use an individuals personal information without their consent to contact them for a commercial purpose.

If you receive an unsolicited commercial email, you can complain to the Privacy Commissioner. Both laws require an organization to get an individuals consent prior to collecting, using or disclosing their personal information, so spyware that does not get your consent before it operates on your computer system is in breach of those requirements. If your personal information has been collected, used or disclosed without your consent by an organization through the use of spyware you can complain to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC.

Consumer Protection Laws

Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (BC)

This Act makes it illegal for any person who supplies goods or services or who solicits, advertises or promotes the supply of goods or services to do anything which could deceive or mislead a consumer. A supplier who is an individual can be fined up to $10,000 or imprisoned for up to 12 months or both. Corporations can be fined up to $100,000. A judge has the power to increase the fine in some circumstances and also has the power to order a person or company that breaks the law to pay money to the deceived consumer as compensation, if the consumer is not otherwise suing for damages.

Competition Act

Under the Competition Act, you can sue any company for making false or misleading representations for the purpose of promoting its business interests or its products. If you win the lawsuit, you could win a sum of money as damages. Section 52(1)(e) prohibits that type of business practice. Section 36 gives an individual the right to sue an organization for breaching s. 52(1).

You can also file a complaint with the Competition Bureau about the company, stating that it has made a false or misleading representation for the purpose of promoting its product or business interest. If you file a complaint, the Commissioner of Competition can investigate, and if he considers it appropriate, can go to court for an order requiring the company to stop. Fines may be ordered in some circumstances (Section 74.01(1).

Lawyer recommended

Bringing these types of actions under these laws would be a fairly new type of claim. For that reason, and because of certain technical requirements in relation to time limits and proving your case to the standard that must be met in any civil action, it is recommended that you consult a lawyer as soon as you believe you have suffered damage from spyware and decide you might want to sue under either the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act or the Competition Act.

• Information on Consumer Protection

• Competition Bureau of Canada

Other Resources

• Consumer assistance is available here at the federal governments Complaint Courier Consumer Gateway

• Here is an excellent Canadian report on spyware and consumer rights

• The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has a useful Spyware FAQ sheet here

How Can You Protect Yourself From Spam?

Never reply to spam. The simplest and most important method of protecting yourself from spam is to just delete it without opening the email. Do not open emails from sources you don't know. If you open an email and discover it is unsolicited commercial email, do not reply. Legitimate businesses never send emails to their customers requesting sensitive personal information. If you receive an email claiming to be from a company youve done business with and it asks you to provide personal information by email, do not reply to it.

Instead, contact the company by phone using the number listed in the phone book. Do not use any number for the company that is provided in the email (if the email is a fraud, the phone number will be too). Tell the company about the email, so they can take steps to stop the spam and warn the public. It is very important to protect your computer by using security software and firewalls. You may also wish to have two or more email addresses: one for your trusted personal or business contacts, the others for other online users.

Online Threats: Cookies

Every time you access a website or obtain services online, the potential exists for the website or service provider to use cookies (a text file containing information that the website or online service provider can store on your computer, allowing it to do things like recognize you when you return to the site, track the pages you view and how long you view them and track your preferences)  to collect details about your location, your ISP (internet service provider), other websites youve visited, your interests and your computers technical details.

How Do You Stop Cookies?

Your computer will have functionalities to stop or disable cookies. Go into the Tools menu, click on Options, and click on the Privacy tab. You should be able to change your privacy settings on that tab but doing so may alter your experience of the web site. 

 

---

Design by

Hosted with Love by