Online Behavioural Advertising Guidelines Released

Over the last year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada ("OPC") released a set of Guidelines and a Policy Position on online behavioural advertising ("OBA").

The OPC defines OBA as "tracking and targeting of individuals' web activities across sites and over time, in order to serve advertisements that are tailored to those individuals' inferred interests."

In the OPC's Privacy and Online Behavioural Advertising Guidelines, the OPC takes the position that information collected in the context of OBA will generally constitute personal information and will therefore be subject to the federal privacy legislation, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA").

Under the OBA Guidelines, an opt-out form of consent for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in OBA is permissible provided that:

• Individuals are made aware of the purposes for the OBA, at or before the time of collection, in a manner that is clear and understandable.
• Individuals are informed of the various parties involved in the OBA at or before the time of collection.
• Individuals are able to opt-out of the practice and the opt-out takes effect immediately and is persistent.
• The information collected is non-sensitive in nature (i.e. not health or financial information).
• The information is destroyed or made de-identifiable as soon as possible.

The OBA Guidelines also provide that OBA cannot be made a condition of a service (i.e., if users cannot block or prevent OBA, it should not be used) and, as a best practice, OBA should not be used on websites designed for children.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.