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ARTICLE · 08 OCTOBER 2026

Privacy Class Actions: The Professional Information Exception Under Scrutiny In Québec

A Quebec Superior Court has authorized a class action examining whether professional contact information collected by business intelligence platform Apollo.io falls within Quebec privacy law's "professional information" exception. The case raises critical questions about the boundaries between protected personal data and exempted professional information in today's digital workplace, particularly regarding cell phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and algorithmic profiling outputs.

CanadaPrivacy

Key takeaways

  • A class action questions the boundary between personal and professional information under Québec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information.
  • The Superior Court of Québec authorized the class action, stating the collected information constitutes personal information, rejecting claims of the professional information exception.
  • The Court highlighted that factors such as social media usage complicate the distinction between personal and professional information, warranting further legal examination.

In today’s digital world, online platforms have become central to business development and networking. Against this backdrop, where should the line be drawn between “personal information” protected under Québec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector,1 and information that falls within the Act’s “professional information” exception? This is one of the questions underlying the Badji2 class action, which was

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