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ARTICLE · 17 FEBRUARY 2022

Privacy, Please: Firm That Breached Instagram's Privacy Policies Loses Class Action Ruling

McMillan LLP
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The BC Supreme Court recently certified a class action proceeding against Hyp3R Inc. (" Hyp3R "), a US-based marketing firm that collected Canadian Instagram users' personal information in breach of the platform's policies.

CanadaPrivacy
Joan Young
Joan Young
Mala Milanese
Mala Milanese
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The BC Supreme Court recently certified a class action proceeding against Hyp3R Inc. (" Hyp3R "), 1 a US-based marketing firm that collected Canadian Instagram users' personal information in breach of the platform's policies. The Court also ordered Hyp3R to pay more than $24 million in damages.

Background

Instagram permits users to share posts, including texts, photos, and videos, with other members and the public. It makes available tools that allow third parties to interact with Instagram, but requires third parties to adhere to certain policies, including the prohibition of "scraping" or improper collection and retention of users' personal information.

In April of 2018, Instagram made changes such that it would not be possible to access or collect all public posts from specific locations or collect and retain users' Instagram stories through those tools. After these changes were made, the defendant Hyp3R carried out "scraping" of personal information

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