p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- After a growing number of complaints against insurance companies, Canada’s privacy commissioner released guidelines to protect people against covert video surveillance, characterizing it as an “extremely privacy-invasive form of technology” to be considered “only in the most limited cases”.

“Covert surveillance is an intrusive act and if there are other means to resolve a dispute, we believe they should be explored first,” assistant commissioner Elizabeth Denham has told the Canwest News Service.

But lawyer Norman Groot, speaking for the Canadian Association of Private Investigators, says PIs needn’t be “deterred” by her views.

Privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddardt is “fending off a legal challenge” from State Farm Insurance, the largest property and casualty insurer in North America, “questioning her jurisdiction over investigations in the first place,” says Canwest.

The company wants the federal court to rule “personal information collected during these investigations, including copies of covert video surveillance reports and tapes, falls outside the scope of Canada’s private sector privacy law,” says the story, going on »»»

Following an investigation into the covert surveillance practices of a private investigation firm working on behalf of an insurance company, the privacy commissioner determined the complaint was well-founded and recommended the firm depersonalize or remove third parties caught on video without their consent.

In this case, a mother and daughter were videotaped during covert surveillance of the mother’s sister, who had begun legal proceedings against her insurer over her benefits following a car accident.

The privacy commissioner also found that the collection, use or disclosure of personal information about third parties without their consent is only acceptable in certain, specific situations — for example, when the information is relevant to the purpose of the collection of information about the subject of the surveillance.

The privacy commissioner declined to bring an application to Federal Court to enforce the recommendations even though the firm refused to implement the recommendations.

And that, Canwest has Groot saying, is worth remembering.

(Cheers, Chris)

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Canwest News Service – Insurance firms tell privacy commissioner to butt out, November 10, 2009

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