Federal privacy watchdog heads to court over Pornhub operator's consent practices

The Pornhub website is shown on a computer screen in Toronto on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne is seeking a Federal Court order directing the operator of the Pornhub website to comply with Canadian privacy law.

Dufresne’s application comes a year after he concluded Aylo, the Montreal-based firm behind Pornhub and other pornographic sites, broke the law by allowing intimate images to be shared without direct knowledge or consent.

The commissioner’s investigation of Aylo, formerly known as MindGeek, followed a complaint from a woman whose ex-boyfriend had uploaded an intimate video and other images of her to Aylo websites without her permission.

Dufresne concluded that inadequate privacy protection measures on Pornhub and other Aylo sites had led to devastating consequences for the complainant and other victims.

He made several recommendations to bring Aylo into compliance with the federal private-sector privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

At the time, the commissioner said the company “expressly disagreed with our conclusions” and had not committed to implementing any of the recommendations.

In a news release Monday, the commissioner’s office said Aylo changed some of its privacy practices and consent verification mechanisms during and after the investigation.

Dufresne contends, however, that the company’s practices still fail to ensure meaningful consent is obtained from everyone who appears in its videos.

“Privacy is a fundamental right and individuals must be protected,” he said in the news release.

Aylo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2025.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press