week 8 surveillance and constitutional rights Flashcards
(12 cards)
Q: Is privacy explicitly protected in the Canadian Constitution?
A: No. Privacy is considered a quasi-constitutional right, meaning it is not directly stated but protected through other legal mechanisms, such as Section 8 of the Charter.
Q: What does Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protect?
A: It protects individuals against unreasonable search or seizure, grounding the right to reasonable expectation of privacy — but this right is not absolute.
Q: What are the three types of privacy recognized under Canadian law?
A: Personal/Bodily Privacy – Includes DNA, biometric info, strip searches.
Place-Based Privacy – Protection within private property, with diminished expectation in public.
Informational Privacy – Relates to data flows (texts, emails, social media).
Q: What is the “reasonable expectation of privacy” standard?
A: A legal metric used to determine whether privacy rights apply in a given situation. If violated, a warrant may be required for the search to be lawful.
Q: What are the two guiding questions used to assess the “reasonable expectation of privacy”?
A: Subjective Expectation – Did the individual personally expect privacy?
Objective Reasonableness – Would a reasonable person see this as a private matter based on norms and context?
Q: What are the Edwards Factors?
A: Criteria set by the Supreme Court of Canada to assess whether there was a reasonable expectation of privacy and whether Section 8 was violated in a search.
Q: What is meant by the “biographical core” in relation to Section 8?
A: Refers to deeply personal information (e.g., health, identity, relationships) that attracts high protection under Section 8. The closer to the biographical core, the stronger the expectation of privacy.
Q: Do digital devices fall under the biographical core? Why or why not?
A: Yes. Due to the quantity and sensitivity of information (e.g., browsing history, private messages), devices contain intimate details and are granted high privacy protection.
Q: What was the legal issue in R v Spencer (2014)?
A: Whether police needed a warrant to obtain subscriber info from an ISP (Shaw) when investigating illegal internet activity.
Q: What did the Supreme Court of Canada decide in R v Spencer?
A: IP addresses alone aren’t highly private, but when linked to subscriber info, it raises the expectation of privacy.
The Court ruled there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in internet identity, so warrants are required in such cases.
Q: What was significant about the R v Spencer ruling for digital privacy?
A: It affirmed that informational privacy extends to internet use and ISP data — connecting digital identity to constitutional privacy protections under Section 8.
Q: How does commercial spyware relate to privacy concerns?
A: Third-party vendors (e.g., NSO Group) sell spyware to governments or companies, which can infringe on personal privacy — especially when used without warrants or consent.
