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Quebec justice minister Sonia LeBel said Thursday she wants to rein in websites when it comes to the use of personal information of those who visit their pages.

Participating in a Montreal conference on the protection of personal information, LeBel acknowledged the task would be a vast undertaking, given the scale of the internet, but added she is convinced it is possible to step in and establish some basic ground rules.

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LeBel zeroed in on the online agreement many users consent to concerning the use of their private information, noting that the language should be simplified rather than consist of several pages of legal jargon.

The minister said that in many cases users don’t even bother to read the complex document, a fact that undermines the notion of informed consent.

“We are looking at informed consent, and for that consent to be informed it must be in a form that people understand,” she said. “Even when that information is available, it isn’t read because … it’s too ponderous.”