OTTAWA -
The Tim Hortons cellular ordering app violated the regulation by amassing huge quantities of location info from clients, an investigation by federal and provincial privateness watchdogs has discovered.
In a report launched Wednesday, privateness commissioners say individuals who downloaded the Tim Hortons app had their actions tracked and recorded each jiffy, even when the app was not open on their telephones.
The investigation got here after Nationwide Submit reporter James McLeod obtained knowledge displaying the Tim Hortons app on his telephone had tracked his location greater than 2,700 occasions in lower than 5 months.
Federal privateness commissioner Daniel Therrien did the probe with privateness commissioners from British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta.
"Our joint investigation tells one more troubling story of an organization that failed to make sure correct design of an intrusive expertise, leading to a mass invasion of Canadians' privateness," Therrien stated.
"It additionally highlights the very actual dangers associated to location knowledge and the monitoring of people."
The commissioners discovered the Tim Hortons app requested for permission to entry a cellular gadget's geolocation features, however misled many customers to consider info can be accessed solely when the app was in use.
Nonetheless, the app tracked customers so long as the gadget was on, frequently gathering their location knowledge.
The commissioners say Tim Hortons collected "huge quantities" of granular location knowledge with the goal of delivering focused promoting, to raised promote its espresso and related merchandise, however that it by no means really used the information for this goal.
The app used location knowledge to deduce the place customers lived, the place they labored and whether or not they had been travelling, the watchdogs discovered.
It generated an "occasion" each time customers entered or left a Tim Hortons competitor, a serious sports activities venue or their dwelling or office, the commissioners stated in a joint information launch.
"The investigation uncovered that Tim Hortons continued to gather location knowledge for a 12 months after shelving plans to make use of it for focused promoting, although it had no legit want to take action," the assertion stated.
"The corporate says it solely used aggregated location knowledge in a restricted means, to research consumer traits -- for instance, whether or not customers switched to different espresso chains, and the way customers' actions modified because the pandemic took maintain."
Whereas Tim Hortons stopped frequently monitoring customers' places in 2020, after the probe was launched, this didn't remove the chance of surveillance, the watchdogs say.
The investigation discovered that Tim Hortons' contract with a U.S. third-party location providers provider contained language so "imprecise and permissive" that it could have allowed the corporate to promote "de-identified" location knowledge for its personal functions.
There's a actual threat that such geolocation knowledge could possibly be "re-identified," the watchdogs warned.
"Geolocation knowledge is extremely delicate as a result of it paints such an in depth and revealing image of our lives," Therrien stated.
Surveillance of our on a regular basis actions reveals the place folks stay and work, in addition to details about visits to a medical clinic or place of worship, he added.
"It may be used to make deductions about sexual preferences, social political affiliations and way more."
Tim Hortons agreed to implement suggestions that the corporate:
delete any remaining location knowledge and direct third-party service suppliers to do the identical;
set up and preserve a privateness administration program for apps; and
report on measures it has taken to adjust to the suggestions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed June 1, 2022
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