{"id":1615,"slug":"opc-2009-002-sold-price-address-personal-mls-not-publicly-available","title":"OPC Case Summary #2009-002 — sold price + address is personal information; pulling from MLS does NOT qualify for \"publicly available\" consent exemption (decisive against MLS-sourced republication)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["privacy-pipeda","real-estate-mls"],"reference_body":"**Claim.** PIPEDA Case Summary #2009-002 found that the combination of condominium address and purchase price paid by the new owner is sufficient information to identify the complainant; purchase price could reveal personal traits such as the abilities to pay or to bargain. A realtor's \"Sold for 99.3pct of asking\" ad without consent = well-founded complaint. Critically, even though the price would likely be accessible through public property registries, **OPC interprets the \"publicly available\" exemption to apply only when the info is *actually collected from a publicly available source* — collecting it from the MLS does NOT qualify for the consent exemption.**\n\n**Quote.**\n> \"The combination of the condominium address and the purchase price paid by the new owner is sufficient information to identify the complainant.\"\n> \"Could reveal personal traits… such as the abilities to pay or to bargain.\"\n> \"Would quite likely be accessible to the public through public property registries.\"\n\n**Source.** OPC PIPEDA Case Summary #2009-002, priv.gc.ca, accessed 2026-06-21.\n\n**Confidence.** Verified.\n\n**Caveats.** The \"actually collected from a publicly available source\" rule is OPC's interpretation; a future case could refine it. Until then, MLS-sourced ≠ registry-sourced for consent-exemption purposes.\n\n**Implication / use.** **Decisive for any product:** pulling a price from the MLS ≠ pulling it from the land registry, for PIPEDA purposes. Anchors [[rule-mls-sold-price-address-needs-consent-not-publicly-available]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-mls-data-inside-the-box-ontario-june-2026","title":"Research notes (capture-layer): inside the MLS box — what an Ontario member agent's account exposes, what goes unused, and what they're licensed to do with it (June 2026)","kind":"research-notes","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"pipeda-ontario-no-substantially-similar-law-applies-in-full","title":"Ontario has no substantially-similar private-sector privacy law → PIPEDA applies in full to MLS personal info (only BC, AB, QC have substantially-similar laws)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-mls-data-inside-the-box-ontario-june-2026","title":"Research notes (capture-layer): inside the MLS box — what an Ontario member agent's account exposes, what goes unused, and what they're licensed to do with it (June 2026)","kind":"research-notes","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-mls-sold-price-address-needs-consent-not-publicly-available","title":"Rule: do not republish sold price + address from MLS without consent. OPC #2009-002 — MLS-sourced ≠ registry-sourced; the \"publicly available\" exemption fails when the MLS is the source","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"caveats-mls-data-inside-the-box-untested-clauses-and-self-reported-metrics","title":"Caveats: MLS-data inside-the-box brief (June 2026) — untested clauses, self-reported metrics, contested copyright status","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"opc-2009-004-aggregation-publicly-available-de-identified-analogy","title":"OPC PIPEDA Case #2009-004 — combining *publicly available* directory info with geo-demographic stats did NOT create new personal info requiring consent; **by analogy, sufficiently aggregated/de-identified MLS market stats likely fall outside PIPEDA consent (DS for the threshold)**","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-21T10:51:32.834Z","updated_at":"2026-06-21T10:51:32.834Z"}