Canada has two federal statues that address personal privacy. The Privacy Act governs the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by public organizations. The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) governs the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by organizations in the course of commercial activities.
Alberta has a provincial statute that is substantially similar to PIPEDA – the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). PIPA applies to provincially-regulated private sector organizations, and to employee information held by provincially-regulated organizations.
The above-noted statutes do not create a cause of action for civil privacy breaches. As such, Albertans who have had their privacy breached by an individual (rather than by a private- or public-sector organization) may find themselves without legal recourse against the person who breached their privacy.
The Ontario Court of Appeal has addressed this gap in Ontario by recognizing the tort of ‘intrusion upon seclusion’ in its landmark decision Jones v Tsige, 2012 ONCA 32.