Research by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada found that leading websites in Canada are providing registered users' personal information to third-party websites without their users' knowledge or consent. The third-party recipients include advertising, marketing, social networking and web analytics websites.

The study found that one out of four websites in the sample regularly disclosed its users' personal information to third-parties. According to the Privacy Commissioner, the findings raise significant questions about compliance with privacy laws in the online world.

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