Roll Up The Rim To Get Skimmed...

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...Data Skimmed That Is.

The following is the lede from a piece by Nojoud Al Mallees published by the CBC:

The federal privacy commissioner's investigation into the Tim Hortons mobile app found that the app unnecessarily collected extensive amounts of data without obtaining adequate consent from users.

The commissioner's report, which was published Wednesday morning, states that Tim Hortons collected granular location data for the purpose of targeted advertising and the promotion of its products but that the company never used the data for those purposes.

"The consequences associated with the App's collection of that data, the vast majority of which was collected when the App was not in use, represented a loss of Users' privacy that was not proportional to the potential benefits Tim Hortons may have hoped to gain from improved targeted promotion of its coffee and associated products," the report read...

Personally, I find the commissioner's concern about how a 'loss of Users' privacy that was not proportional to the potential benefits Tim Hortons' to be disturbing in the extreme.

For example, could this not be taken to mean that loss of Users' privacy would be just fine if the benefits to Tim Hortons (and any entity they sell the data to) were sky high?

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In other corporate overlord news....

The following is the lede from a piece by Katie De Rosa in the Vancouver Sun:

The province’s medical services watchdog is investigating whether private, fee-based services offered by Telus Health allow patients to jump the queue, which is against the law.

Critics are concerned that Telus Health’s LifePlus program, which requires patients to pay thousands of dollars a year — and in some cases is the only way to keep their family doctor — is creating a two-tier medical system.

Mark Winston, 72-year-old Vancouver resident, said last fall he received a letter from his family doctor who said he would be closing his practice and moving to Telus Health.

If Winston wanted to continue seeing his doctor, he’d have to pay $4,650 for the first year and $3,600 annually after that to register in Telus Health’s LifePlus program.

Winston wanted to keep seeing his general practitioner, whom he said provides “exemplary care” but was morally opposed to paying a fee to access enhanced health care...

In my opinion, the issue here is not, as the overlord would like you to understand it, paying an-all- one fee for an umbrella of services not covered by MSP.

Instead the issue is the potential for this kind of thing to become the thin edge of a loss-of-universality wedge when it comes to basic MSP-funded care.


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