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Public Notice CRTC 2001-60-1
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Ottawa, 31 May 2001
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CRTC seeks public input on the confidentiality provisions of
Canadian carriers
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Reference: 8665-C12-14/01 and
8665-B20-01/00
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Corrected version of Public Notice CRTC 2001-60
issued on 29 May 2001
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The CRTC is seeking public input for its review of the
confidentiality provisions applicable to most Canadian telecom
carriers.
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This public notice invites Canadians to comment on whether the
written consent of customers should continue to be required in order
to allow carriers and their affiliates to share customer
information.
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1. |
One of the policy objectives in section 7 of the Telecommunications
Act is "to contribute to the protection of the privacy of
persons." Currently, Canadian
carriers, including cellular and personal communications
services (PCS) providers (with the exception of all other mobile
wireless providers, such as pager service providers), are restricted
from providing confidential customer information to third parties
without the written consent of the customer. This was established in
Review of the general regulations of the federally regulated
terrestrial telecommunications common carriers, Telecom Decision
CRTC 86-7, dated 26 March 1986, and amended in Telecom Order
CRTC 86-593. This provision can be found in the Terms of Service for
incumbent local exchange carriers, which can be found at or near the
beginning of their telephone directories.
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2. |
In November 2000, Bell Canada applied to the Commission on behalf
of itself, Bell Mobility, Bell Nexxia, Island Telecom Inc., Maritime
Tel & Tel Limited, MT&T Mobility Inc., MTS
Communications Inc., NBTel Inc., NewTel Communications Inc. and
NewTel Mobility Limited (the companies). The companies asked the
Commission to modify Article 11 of their Terms of Service in order
to allow their affiliated companies to share confidential customer
information without having to obtain written consent from the
customer.
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3. |
The companies took the position that the requirements of Article
11 are more stringent than required by the new Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, S.C. 2000, c. 5
("PIPED Act"), which came into force in January 2001.
The companies stated that the requirement to obtain written consent
inhibits their ability to efficiently respond to customers' needs.
In addition, cable companies that also offer bundled services do not
have similar Article 11 confidentiality requirements. Therefore, the
companies believe that, when they market the services of affiliates,
the companies are at a competitive disadvantage compared to cable
companies.
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4. |
Comments on this proposal by the companies were received from
TELUS Communications Inc. and AXXENT Corp. in conjunction with
AT&T Canada Ltd. TELUS supported the proposed changes, while
AXXENT and AT&T Canada opposed the proposed changes. AXXENT and
AT&T Canada noted that the issue should be subject to a broader
public review process. These comments are on the public record of
this proceeding.
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5. |
Almost all Canadian carriers have the same provision for the
protection of confidential customer records as the companies.
Therefore, the Commission has determined that the issue raised by
the companies should be examined in the context of a proceeding that
encompasses all such other Canadian carriers.
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Issues
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6. |
The Commission invites comments on the current written consent
rule for disclosure of confidential customer information insofar as
affiliates are concerned.
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7. |
The Commission invites responses to the following questions, as
well as any other relevant points that a party or parties may wish
to raise:
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a) Does the current written consent rule
place Canadian carriers at a competitive disadvantage compared to
competitors such as cable companies? How should the Commission
balance privacy concerns with the issue of competitive equity? |
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b) Should a Canadian carrier be permitted
to disclose confidential customer information to an affiliated
company without the written consent of the subscriber? |
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c) If such disclosure is permitted,
should it be subject to any restrictions? For example, should such
disclosure only be permitted for the purpose of allowing the
affiliated company to market or provide its products and services to
the subscriber? |
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d) If written consent is not required: |
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i) What type of consent (e.g. express or implied) would be
sufficient to allow a Canadian carrier to disclose to an
affiliated company confidential subscriber information?
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ii) Assuming express consent is required, what measures would
be adequate for obtaining express consent for such use and
disclosure?
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e) What are the circumstances that would
indicate implied customer consent to allow a carrier to disclose the
customer's confidential information to affiliated companies? |
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f) In the approved tariffs of incumbent
local telephone companies, the term "affiliate" is defined
as any person controlling or controlled by the same person that
controls the company and includes a related person. Is this
definition sufficient for the current purposes and, if not, what
would be a sufficient definition of an affiliate? |
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g) Information stored in a centralized
database: |
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i) If confidential customer information shared among affiliated
companies is stored in and accessed from a centralized database,
does that raise any particular privacy issues?
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ii) Should there be any restrictions on the collection and
storage in this manner of confidential subscriber information? If
so, what should they be?
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iii) Should access to such database be subject to any
conditions? If so, what should they be?
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Procedure
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8. |
All Canadian carriers,
including cellular and PCS providers (with the exception of all
other mobile wireless providers, such as pager service providers)
are all made parties to this proceeding.
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9. |
Other parties wishing to participate fully in this proceeding
must notify the Commission of their intention to do so by 28 June
2001. These parties should contact the Secretary General,
by mail at CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0N2; by fax at (819) 953-0975;
or by email at procedure@crtc.gc.ca. They are to indicate in
the notice their email address, where available. If parties do not
have access to the Internet, they are to indicate in their notice
whether they wish to receive disk versions of hard copy filings. The
Commission will issue, as soon as possible after the registration
date, a complete list of parties and their mailing address
(including their email address, if available), identifying those
parties who wish to receive disk versions.
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10. |
Parties may file their submissions with the Commission, serving a
copy on all other parties. All such material is to be filed with the
Commission and served on all parties by 30 July 2001.
Submissions longer than five pages should include a summary.
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11. |
This proceeding will have an interrogatory process. Parties may
address questions to any other party that filed comments and any
Canadian carrier that is a party and did not file comments. Any such
interrogatories must be filed with the Commission and served on the
interested party or parties in question by 27 August 2001.
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12. |
Responses to all interrogatories are to be filed with the
Commission and served on all parties by 26 September 2001.
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13. |
Requests by parties for further responses to their
interrogatories, specifying in each case why a further response is
both relevant and necessary, and requests for public disclosure of
information for which confidentiality has been claimed, setting out
in each case the reasons for disclosure, must be filed with the
Commission and served on all parties by 3 October 2001.
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14. |
Written responses to requests for further responses to
interrogatories and for public disclosure must be filed with the
Commission and served on the party making the request by 10
October 2001.
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15. |
A determination will be issued with respect to requests for
further information and public disclosure as soon as possible, and
it is expected that any information to be provided pursuant to that
determination will be filed with the Commission and served on all
parties by 14 November 2001.
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16. |
Parties may file comments with the Commission, serving a copy on
all other parties by 5 December 2001. Submissions
longer than five pages should include a summary.
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17. |
Any person who wishes merely to file written comments in this
proceeding, without receiving copies of the various submissions, may
do so by writing to the Commission at the address noted in paragraph
9 by 5 December 2001. Submissions longer than five
pages should include a summary.
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18. |
Parties may file reply comments with the Commission serving a
copy on all other parties by 19 December 2001.
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19. |
Where a document is to be filed or served by a specific date, the
document must be actually received, not merely sent, by that date.
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20. |
Parties wishing to file electronic versions of their comments can
do so by email at the address shown above, or on diskette.
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21. |
The electronic version should be in the HTML format. As an
alternative, those making submissions may use "Microsoft
Word" for text and "Microsoft Excel" for
spreadsheets.
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22. |
Please number each paragraph of your submission. In addition,
please enter the line ***End of Document*** following the last
paragraph. This will help the Commission verify that the document
has not been damaged during transmission.
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23. |
The Commission will make submissions filed in electronic form
available on its web site at www.crtc.gc.ca in the official
language and format in which they are submitted. This will make it
easier for members of the public to consult the documents.
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24. |
The Commission also encourages interested parties to monitor the
public examination file (and/or the Commission's web site) for
additional information that they may find useful when preparing
their submissions.
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25. |
Submissions may be examined or will be made available promptly
upon request at the Commission offices during normal business hours:
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Central Building
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
1 Promenade du Portage, Room G-5
Hull, Quebec K1A 0N2
Tel: (819) 997-2429 - TDD: 994-0423
Fax: (819) 994-0218
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Bank of Commerce Building
1809 Barrington Street
Suite 1007
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3K8
Tel: (902) 426-7997 - TDD: 426-6997
Fax: (902) 426-2721
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405 de Maisonneuve Blvd. East
2nd Floor, Suite B2300
Montréal, Quebec H2L 4J5
Tel: (514) 283-6607 - TDD: 283-8316
Fax: (514) 283-3689
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55 St. Clair Avenue East
Suite 624
Toronto, Ontario M4T 1M2
Tel: (416) 952-9096
Fax: (416) 954-6343
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Kensington Building
275 Portage Avenue
Suite 1810
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2B3
Tel: (204) 983-6306 - TDD: 983-8274
Fax: (204) 983-6317
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Cornwall Professional Building
2125 - 11th Avenue
Room 103
Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 3X3
Tel: (306) 780-3422
Fax: (306) 780-3319
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Suite 520 - 10405 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 3N4
Tel: (780) 495-3224
Fax: (780) 495-3214
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530-580 Hornby Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3B6
Tel: (604) 666-2111 - TDD: 666-0778
Fax: (604) 666-8322
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Secretary General
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This document is available in alternative format upon request and
may also be examined at the following Internet site: http://www.crtc.gc.ca
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