What The Supreme Court's Latest Privacy Ruling Means For Business

The Supreme Court of Canada's decision in R v. Reeves, 2018 SCC 56 (Reeves) has broad privacy law implications, despite it being decided in the criminal law context. The majority of the Court ruled that when two people share a personal computer, one person can't consent to its search or seizure on behalf of the other person.

What You Need To Know

The Court's ruling in Reeves has implications in the business context where organizations rely on an individual's consent to collect, use or disclose personal information on behalf of their spouse or household. For example, where organizations rely on an employee's or customer's consent to provide benefits to their spouse or common law partner or to handle household information for statistical, data analytics or marketing purposes, they should consider whether the form of consent captures all individuals whose information may be processed. Organizations should ensure customers or employees understand they need to obtain meaningful consent from individual household members before consenting on their behalf. Organizations must document that customers or employees have the authority to consent on behalf of the household. This could mean including language such as “I have provided the [terms and conditions/privacy policy] to [the relevant individuals] and have the authority to consent on their behalf” prior to the collection of such information. While privacy jurisprudence arising from the criminal context engages somewhat different rights under the Charter than would apply in the private sector, the principles of a reasonable expectation of privacy and meaningful consent discussed in Reeves are increasingly relevant to the federal Privacy Commissioner's interpretation of businesses' obligations under PIPEDA. Background

In Reeves, Mr. Reeves was not permitted to live in his family home after he was charged with domestic violence. Mr. Reeves' wife alerted his probation officer to the fact she thought she'd seen child pornography on their shared computer. Subsequently, a police officer, who didn't have a search warrant and didn't have enough evidence to obtain one, came to the home and took the shared computer on Mr. Reeves' spouse's consent. When the police finally searched the...