Canada: Issued Federal Court of Appeal’s ruling in Privacy Commissioner’s case against Facebook for privacy violations (Canada v Facebook)

On 10 September 2024, the Federal Court of Appeal issued a decision in the Privacy Commissioner’s lawsuit against Facebook for violations of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). In particular, the Court found that Facebook’s practices between 2013 and 2015 breached PIPEDA’s requirement to obtain meaningful consent from users prior to data disclosure and failed in its obligation to safeguard user data. The lawsuit followed an investigation of a PIPEDA complaint, claiming that "thisisyourdigitallife", a third-party application, had obtained data through Facebook and subsequently disclosed it to "Cambridge Analytica", a British research firm