The Canadian Press Published Wednesday, June 1, 2022 5:57 AM EDT Last Updated on Wednesday, June 1, 2022 5:57 AM EDT
The Canadian Privacy Commissioner will report today on the results of an investigation into whether Tim Hortons ‘mobile ordering application was improperly tracking users’ whereabouts without their explicit consent.
The 23-month investigation came after National Post journalist James McLeod obtained data showing that the Tim Hortons app on his phone had tracked its location more than 2,700 times in less than five months.
Tracking occurred even when you were not using the app, although the company’s website stated that tracking would only occur while the app was open.
Federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien conducted the investigation in conjunction with the Privacy Commissioners of British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta.
The investigation is expected to determine whether Restaurant Brands International, Tim Hortons’ parent company, was complying with Canada’s national privacy law and obtaining “significant consent” from users to collect and use their location data.
When the investigation was launched, a statement from the company expressed confidence that the matter would be resolved and that the application had already been updated to ensure that location data was only tracked while the application was being tracked. was in use, regardless of the phone settings selected.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 1, 2022.