The Harper government’s Digital Privacy Act is being billed as “protection for Canadians when they surf the web and shop online,” but critics say it amounts to a wholesale threat to the privacy rights it ostensibly aims to enshrine.

Bill S-4, as the proposed legislation is officially known, would allow internet service providers to share subscriber information with any organization that is investigating a possible breach of contract, such as a copyright violation, or illegal activity, writes digital law professor Michael Geist.

Telecoms would be allowed to keep the sharing of data secret from the affected customers.

The bill could also remove court oversight of copyright lawsuits against Canadian consumers, potentially setting up the sort of “copyright trolling” seen in the U.S., in which music and movie rights holders often demand tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars from individual downloaders.

But under bill S-4, sharing subscriber data would not be limited to investigations of possible unauthorized downloading. It could be used in defamation cases, commercial disputes and consumer disputes, Geist writes -- virtually any time an organization wants to investigate something of a legal matter, they would be able to get subscriber data from telecoms.

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