Carter claims that ISP Inter.net, now bankrupt, charged her $214 for 14 months of service that had gone unbilled due to an accounting error. She initially agreed to pay half but the ISP later rejected the agreement, so she terminated her account and signed up with another provider.
Carter alleges that Inter.net kept her account open and withheld e-mail messages without her knowledge. One of the withheld messages was, according to Carter, sent by a potential employer, encouraging her to apply for a $65,000 contract job. By the time she managed to retrieve the e-mail, the position had been filled.
George Radwanski, Canada's Privacy Commissioner, ruled in August that Inter.net's policy was in breach of the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which prohibits collecting personal information without consent.
He recommended that ISPs should abandon the policy of account suspension and return e-mails to senders with a notification of non-delivery. His ruling cleared the way for the civil trial.
The Privacy Commissioner's ruling can be found at:
www.privcom.gc.ca/cf-dc/cf-dc_020828_e.asp