PROFILAGE EN LIGNE ET PROTECTION DES RENSEIGNEMENTS PERSONNELS

POUR EN FINIR AVEC LE MYTHE DU CONSENTEMENT !

Abstract

The digitization of social interactions has enabled the development of more sophisticated technologies and targeting and profiling techniques that rely on personal information collected for commercial use. These developments allow the marketing industry to analyze and make predictions about user consumers. While such practices are permitted and regulated under the Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information, this legal instrument appears to fall short as a regulatory tool. Its approach to protecting users from online profiling is built on the idea of “free and informed” consent. While, in theory, this legal instrument places a laudable emphasis on the individual and their control of their own personal information, in practice, it’s unclear whether consent will be an effective check, making this a less than stellar solution.

In light of this uncertainty and given the ways in which personal information can be misused, we endeavour to deconstruct the myth that consent protects users from online profiling and propose new ways to think about consent.