THE PROBLEM:

Bob wanted to search hotel sites to find a good deal for a hotel in Toronto to attend the Pan Am Games.[1]Consequently, he went onto a search site called Dugouts.com.This site searched hundreds of hotels and gave Bob a list of prices.When Bob first entered Dugouts.com's website, the initial page that appeared was a "splash page."The splash page asks for the customer's language of choice and country of residence.Once the customer provided this information via cookies, they were directed to the appropriate home page.Bob had disabled permanent cookies on his computer so he was unable to proceed to the home page because the Web site was coded in a way that would not let him proceed until the cookies had been stored.Nowhere on the company's website did the privacy policy mention the use of cookies.As a result of this situation, Bob was denied access to Dugouts.com's search engine and had to find a hotel using other means, which he feels cost him a lot more money.Bob is thinking about complaining to Canada's Privacy Commissioner.

Please answer the following questions about Bob's situation.

Questions:

1.Has Dugout.com through its cookies attempted to collect personal information about Bob?If so, what?

2.Has Dugout.com violated any of the PIPEDA privacy principles in Bob's case and, if so, which ones and why?

3.Without discontinuing the use of cookies, how could Dugout.com have avoided any problems with PIPEDA?

1 Facts loosely based on PIPEDA Case Summary # 2003-162 (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. (n.d.). Customer complains about airline's use of "cookies" on its Web site. Retrieved from https://www.priv.gc.ca/cf-dc/2003/cf-dc_030416_7_e.asp.