Canadian Privacy Commissioner: DRM is legalized spyware

It’s not often that I find a relevant post on Boing Boing, but then again this one is by Canadian Cory Doctrow:

At issue in Stoddart’s letter is the idea of protecting “Digital Rights Management” anti-copying and use-control systems in law. These systems frequently spy on users and then “phone home” with detailed information about your activities. The Privacy Commissioner is understandably alarmed at the prospect of changing Canadian law to make it illegal to tamper with this spyware…Source: Canadian Privacy Commissioner rejects DRM: don’t give spyware legal protection! – Boing Boing

Here is the section of the letter from Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart sent to Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry and the Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, on the potential changes to the Copyright Act that Cory quoted:

If DRM technologies only controlled copying and use of content, our Office would have few concerns. However, DRM technologies can also collect detailed personal information from users, who often do no more than access the content on a computer. This information is transmitted back to the copyright owner or content provider, without the consent or knowledge of the user. Although the means exist to circumvent these technologies and thus prevent the collection of this information, previous proposals to amend the Copyright Act contained anti-circumvention provisions.

Technologies that report back to a company about the use of a product reveal a great deal about an individual’s tastes and preferences. Indeed, such information can be extremely personal. Technologies that automatically collect personal information about individuals without their knowledge or consent violate the fair information principles that are central to PIPEDA and most other privacy legislation. That this occurs when individuals are engaged in a private activity in their homes or other places where they have a high expectation of privacy exacerbates the intrusiveness of the collection.

This is strong stuff.  Harsh stuff.  Wrong?  Not a bit.

Ms. Stoddart makes a compelling point that we should all take heed of, regardless of where you live.  DRM was deemed so important that our privacy was put on the table for sale.  Is DRM completely dead?  I would like to think so, but somehow I doubt that the recording industry is just going to sit by and let this pass into the good night.

DRM as legalized spyware.  Spyware that you can’t (legally) subvert.  Sometimes it takes inflammatory language to really get your point across.

This was one of those times.  Props to Ms. Stoddart for standing up for all of us.