With help from the FTC, Canada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner found that Accusearch, Inc, an online background investigation firm, violated PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act), Canada's privacy law.

In the U.S., the major enforcement agency of privacya nd security regulations is the Federal Trade Commission, and sometimes the FCC gets involved, but less likely.  In Canada, it is done by the Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner, logical title it would seem.

Accusearch operated a web based criminal background search company at the website Abika.com.  The Candian Office of the Privacy Commissioner found that Accusearch specifically violated PIPEDA by disclosing Canadians' personal information without their knowledge or consent to third parties.

The case summart stated: "Moreover, it is clear, that in some cases, Abika has knowingly collected, used, and disclosed personal information of persons living in Canada for purposes that a reasonable person would consider highly inappropriate in almost any set of circumstances. I find, therefore, that Abika has contravened subsection 5(3).."