In its June 13, 2014 decision in R v. Spencer, the Supreme Court
of Canada has begun what will undoubtedly be a long process of
delineating the privacy rights of Canadians in their online
activities. Justice Cromwell, writing for the Court, started his
reasons by noting that the internet has raised manifold and
challenging privacy concerns. The question at issue in
Spencer is whether Canadians have a Charter
protected privacy interest in data gathered by their internet
service provider ("ISP") about their online activities.
The Court answered this question in the affirmative.
Mr. Spencer was the subject of a police investigation for
activities related to child pornography. During the investigation,
the police requested information from Mr. Spencer's ISP, which
complied with the request. The police had not obtained a search
warrant for this information, and Mr. Spencer challenged the
provision of the information to the police by his ISP on the
grounds that it violated
