ARTICLE · 06 FEBRUARY 2018

Right To Be Forgotten, Eh? Canada's Privacy Commissioner Says Law Requires Search Engine De-Indexing

Stikeman Elliott LLP

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In one of the most significant and controversial interpretations of Canada's private sector privacy law since its inception, the federal Privacy Commissioner has suggested, to the surprise of many, that the existing...

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In one of the most significant and controversial interpretations of Canada's private sector privacy law since its inception, the federal Privacy Commissioner has suggested, to the surprise of many, that the existing law supports a right for individuals to require search engines to de-index web content that contains their personal information.

Following a public consultation initiated in 2016, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) recently released a draft position paper that asserts that the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) provides a right to apply to search engines to "de-index" (i.e., remove) certain search results that damage an individual's reputation. De-indexing rights do not affect the source websites, but do make them more difficult to locate and access.

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