 Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart prepares to testify during an Access to Information Committee at Parliament Hill in Ottawa April 26, 2012. (Andre Forget/QMI AGENCY)
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Canada's privacy commissioner has come out on the side of two consumers who filed complaints about their personal information being used without their consent.
In two decisions released Friday, Jennifer Stoddart's office found a children's summer camp and a cellphone retail kiosk violated the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
An Ontario camp, which is not identified in the report, rejected the application of a disabled camper after it obtained information - without consent - from the child's previous camp.
The child's mother said the new camp admitted it had been speaking with the old one, and told her that "her child's disabilities would not be fair to other campers," the report said.
Neither camp had been authorized to share the child's information, the commissioner found, and both camps had insufficient policies regarding the collection and use of campers' personal information, which they have both been asked to revise.
A telecom company's mall kiosk also improperly used customer information when it allowed a stepson to change his stepdad's wireless contract and ring up new charges. At least one collection agency went after the dad for outstanding charges, which were meanwhile piling up with late fees and posing a possible risk to the man's credit rating.
In the course of the commission's investigation, the telecom company admitted its "customer validation process" had not been followed, the report said, and resolved the matter both with the customer and with the credit-reporting agency.
