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ARTICLE · 04 MAY 2023

Federal Court Dismisses Commissioner's Application In Facebook Privacy Case

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The Federal Court of Canada released a decision on April 14, 2023 in OPC v Facebook Inc.,2023 FC 533 [Facebook], dismissing the Privacy Commissioner's application against Facebook stemming from alleged breaches to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

CanadaPrivacy
Ruth Promislow
Ruth Promislow
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The Federal Court of Canada released a decision on April 14, 2023 in OPC v Facebook Inc.,2023 FC 533 [Facebook], dismissing the Privacy Commissioner's application against Facebook (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) stemming from alleged breaches to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Though the Commissioner claimed that Facebook's practice of sharing Facebook users' personal information with a third party application contravened Canadian privacy laws, the Court was unpersuaded, citing a lack of evidentiary basis to support these claims.

Background

The Commissioner applied to the Federal Court following an investigation of a privacy complaint that a third party application known as "thisisyourdigitallife" (TYDL App) hosted on the Facebook Platform had sold Facebook user data to a British research firm called Cambridge Analytica and a related firm, SCL Elections. It was widely reported that SCL allegedly used that data to help their

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