Colleen Bauman

The Privacy Commissioner brought a reference to the Federal Court regarding the application of PIPEDA to Google's search engine.

A complainant alleged Google contravened PIPEDA by displaying links to sensitive news articles when his name was searched.

The Court answered two reference questions.

First, the Court held that Google collects, uses, and discloses personal information in the course of commercial activities when indexing and displaying search results, as every component of its business model is commercial.

Second, the Court held Google's search engine service is not excluded from PIPEDA under the journalistic exemption, as its primary purpose is not journalistic, and certainly not exclusively journalistic.

The Court concluded PIPEDA applies to Google's search engine operations.