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Once S-4 becomes law, PIPEDA will allow companies to share Canadians’ information with other companies if they believe there has been a breach of agreement, or a case of fraud.

In other words, says digital advocacy group OpenMedia, pirating a copy of Game of Thrones onto your laptop will mean that HBO may soon have your number. All they’ll have to do is call up your internet service provider and ask for the information of each user who has ignored their copyright.

The practise began in the United States, where companies — unflatteringly referred to as “copyright trolls” — have issued mass mailings to users who pirate copyright material. The letters range from cease and desist requests, to notices of legal action and, more and more commonly, demands for reparation. In the U.S., companies have been known seek as much as $75,000 or more for violations.

David Christopher, communications manager for OpenMedia, says it’s a dangerous precedent, and S-4 will allow for it.

“It also opens the door to telecom firms handing our private data to U.S.-style copyright trolls, without any court order or judicial oversight,”he says. “Worst of all, we’d never know when we’d been a victim of these privacy breaches as the disclosures would be kept secret.”

David Fraser, a partner at McInnes Cooper and a digital law expert, agrees that it could be an issue. “It certainly puts them in a better and easier place to extort payments from users,” he says, arguing that if a company wants to go after users, they should obtain a court order.