TORONTO — Tim Hortons’ mobile app is under investigation for allegedly breaking Canada’s privacy laws. Launched in 2020, more than one in 10 Canadians use the mobile app at least once a month. It has more than 4.3 million monthly active users and was only second to Amazon among the most used e-commerce apps in Canada as of the end of March, according to The Globe and Mail.
Concerns about whether the company gathers too much information first surfaced in a 2020 National Post article that revealed the Tim Hortons mobile app was capable of constantly tracking users’ movements, even when not actively in use. After that report, the federal privacy commissioner teamed up with counterparts in Alberta, B.C. and Quebec to investigate.
Additionally, the chain’s parent company, Restaurant Brands International Inc. (RBI), has faced scrutiny in the form of four class-action lawsuits launched in B.C., Quebec and Ontario. The software was developed by RBI in partnership with Radar Labs, a U.S.-based company, which has been named as a co-defendant in two of the four Canadian class actions. The lawsuits have been filed by customers who claim they weren’t informed about the information the app would collect.
In addition to four lawsuits, Tim Hortons faces investigations into its mobile app by four of Canada’s privacy commissioners, who are expected to release the findings of their joint probe in the near future.
