GATINEAU, Que. — The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), along with three provincial counterparts, will launch an investigation into a Tim Hortons mobile-ordering application after media reports raised concerns about how the app may be collecting and using data about people’s movements as they go about their daily activities.
The joint investigation will be undertaken by the OPC, Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec (CAI), Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC (OIPC BC) and Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (OIPC AB).
The OPC will examine whether Tim Hortons is in compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada’s federal private-sector privacy law. More specifically, it will look at whether the organization is obtaining meaningful consent from app users to collect and use their geolocation data for purposes including the amassing and use of detailed user profiles and whether that collection and use of the data is appropriate in the circumstances.
