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Data

Canadians can find out what data a company stores about them

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

The average consumer is starting to realize how much personal data companies collect about them. 

RELATED: How Target knows you are pregnant through data analytics

Consumers should be concerned about what data is collected, how is is used and who it is shared with. 

Canadian privacy laws ( like Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) allow consumers to access their information (aka companies must respond to a request for personal information held by the company).

“Principle 4.9: Upon request, an individual shall be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of his or her personal information and be given access to that information. An individual shall be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate.”
— PIPEDA

PIPEDA section 4.9 mandates that companies respond to Data Access Requests within 30 days of receipt. The information must be made available for free or at a reasonable cost.

“Principle 4.9.4: An organization shall respond to an individual’s request within a reasonable time and at minimal or no cost to the individual.”
— PIPEDA

Some companies use legally complex wording and vague statements in their privacy policies to hide the level of detail collected and to obfuscate how it is used. The Data Access Request allows any individual to understand (and see) what has been collected and what is being done with their information. 

What is a Data Access Request?

Toronto based Citizen Lab has created and operated a site called Access My Info. The site was created to simplify how Canadian's create and submit Data Access Requests using templates. 

Testing it

I will submit a couple of test requests and see how companies respond. If you are a Canadian, I encourage you to try this as well.

Public Mobile to launch US Roaming Add-on

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Public Mobile is a low-cost limited network Canadian mobile service provider. It has recently announced in its forums that it will be adding a new US Roaming add-on (option) through new deals struck with T-Mobile and AT&T.

The carrier has said this is in response to comments made in its forums and will come in 10-day chunks of phone only, text only, data only or a combo plan. 

Limited data is available but we expect the options to look like this:

  1. unlimited USA talk $CAD8
  2. unlimited text $CAD8
  3. 1GB of data for $CAD20

Let's compare the data rate to the pay per use rate of $US0.10 per MB. 1GB = 1000MB = $US100. Obviously the Public Mobile rate is cheaper. You can also buy the KnowRoaming unlimited data plan for $US7.99 per day which would cost $US79.99 for 10 days of unlimited data.

Let's compare it to Roam Mobility. A 1GB data only plan good for 30 days costs $CAD21.95 which is competitive. You can get their unlimited talk+text+data plan for only $4.95 / day ($CAD49.50 for 10 days of everything unlimited). If you add the 10 days of talk, text and 1GB of Data from PublicMobile, you get $36. 

Looking at above, my recommendation is to go with Roam Mobility. For $14 more, you get unlimited data for 10 days which will likely be more attractive to most users.