Legal Commentary

Supreme Court of Canada – is electricity consumption personal information?

By David Canton

The Supreme Court of Canada just released a decision in R v Gomboc  that dealt with whether the use of a device to measure electricity consumption at a suspected grow-op without a warrant (its purpose was to form the basis to get a warrant) was proper.

The court held that is was acceptable.  The case is not as helpful as it might be for precedent value though, as it hinged on specific Alberta regulations, and the reasons for judgment were split.  Some of the judges felt there was no reasonable expectation of privacy – while some felt there was, but that the regulation overrode that expectation.

For more detail, see commentary by David Fraser, Brian Bowman, and on the Canadian Technology & IP Law blog.

Full post as published by eLegal Canton on November 30, 2010 (boomark / email).