Privacy Commissioner Seeks Federal Court Order For Pornhub Operator To Comply With Canadian Privacy Law

On March 3, 2025, The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the OPC) announced that it filed an application with the Federal Court  (the Court) seeking an order to require Aylo, one of the world’s largest operators of pornographic sites, including Pornhub, to take necessary steps to comply with Canada’s federal private sector privacy law, the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

This application follows a 2024 report issued by the OPC that highlights significant flaws in Aylo’s privacy practices. For example, the OPC found that Aylo’s consent model, which relies on uploaders attesting that they obtained consent from each individual whose personal information is depicted in the uploaded content, does not constitute reasonable efforts to ensure that meaningful consent had been obtained from those individuals.  Additionally, the OPC found that Aylo failed to provide an accessible, user-friendly process for individuals to contest consent and have content removed from its websites. These inadequate privacy protections can have, and have had, severe consequences for victims of non-consensual disclosure of intimate images, such as social stigma, psychological harm, financial loss, and instances of attempted suicide.

Ultimately, the OPC’s investigation report concluded that Aylo had a legal obligation under PIPEDA to obtain the necessary consent for uploaded content and had failed to do so. Based on this conclusion, the OPC provided several recommendations to Aylo with the goal of bringing the company into compliance with PIPEDA. Although Aylo made some adjustments to its privacy practices and consent verification processes, these changes were insufficient to ensure that meaningful consent was obtained from all individuals appearing in content uploaded to its websites.

Now, the Privacy Commissioner is seeking a Federal Court order requiring Aylo to implement clear, specific measures to ensure meaningful consent is obtained directly from every individual who appears in intimate images and videos that are uploaded to its websites.

Summary By: Victoria Di Felice