New findings from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

The federal Privacy Commissioner has published three new findings on its website. It's an eclectic bunch of decisions:

Commissioner's Findings - Privacy Commissioner of Canada -

• PIPEDA Case summary #300: Company collecting consumer personal information without identifying purposes halts practice and implements privacy policies and practices - A consumer product company placed labels reading "Call this number before you use your new widget", which required the consumer to provide warranty registration information without telling the consumer why the info was being collected.
• PIPEDA Case summary #299: Thief cashes convenience cheque on cancelled credit card account - A bank cashed a stolen cheque on a cancelled credit card account and thus violated the accuracy and safeguards principles.
• PIPEDA Case summary #298: Store employee discloses customer telephone number to a third party - A pet store employee provided the phone number of a customer to a "long lost friend" who harassed the customer. The employee was fired and the company was found to have violated the consent principle. The Assistant Commissioner also noted that the store should not have told other employees and customers that the employee had been fired for the breach, even though employee information (in the provincially-regulated private sector is not covered by PIPEDA.