NEWS RELEASE

Attention Business Editors:

McInnes Cooper and Thor Solutions Team Up to Provide Affordable Privacy Solution to Small and Med-sized Businesses

April, 2004, Halifax – Thor Solutions Inc. and McInnes Cooper have formed National Privacy Services Inc. (NPSi) to provide businesses with a cost-effective solution to the new privacy legislation.

            “Businesses have a long list of things to do to comply with the new legislation governing the handling of personal information,” says David T.S. Fraser, Chair of McInnes Cooper's Privacy Group. “We help them avoid the expense of building a solution from scratch, spending a great deal of time becoming privacy experts themselves, or ignoring the legislation and risking their businesses by being identified as non-compliant.”

            “Our solution is cost-effective and immediate,” says Dale Telford, Chief Privacy Officer of NPSi.  “It provides businesses with the tools to quickly become compliant through policies, procedures, consent strategies, a multi-media training program and their very own out-sourced privacy officer.  The Common Sense Privacy Solution is very affordable for smaller organizations. “It is focused at small- and medium-sized businesses that are at high risk, such as medical practices and insurance brokers,” says Telford. “We can act as the privacy officer, helping both the business and the customers. We save our clients time and money by dealing with queries, access requests and complaints. We can answer their questions and provide critical support”

            “This law applies to every business that handles personal information in the course of commercial activities. Without an effective privacy plan, businesses are at risk of having their reputation significantly damaged. NPSi is designed to give businesses the tools they need, at a price they can afford, to reduce the risk. The last thing a growing business needs is to be named as non-compliant by the Privacy Commissioner or end up in Federal Court,” says Fraser.  “Addressing the new privacy law is prudent risk-management. Given the risks of non-compliance and the cost of our program, this truly is a common sense solution.”

About National Privacy Services Inc.

National Privacy Services Inc. (NPSi) (www.privlaw.com) was founded in 2003 by Thor Solutions Inc. and McInnes Cooper in order to assist businesses, professionals and industry associations in following privacy best practices, based on the information privacy requirements of the federal privacy law and similar provincial statutes.

Thor Solutions Inc. (www.thorsolutions.com) is a recognized leader in the field of information security. McInnes Cooper (www.mcinnescooper.com) is Atlantic Canada's largest single law partnership with a nationally recognized privacy practice.

NPSi's focus is to provide guidance and support to organizations as they adopt mandatory privacy best practices. We work closely with industry groups to design privacy programs that can be easily and efficiently adopted without interfering with the operations of the organizations required. In addition, we provide full support to our clients, with toll-free, on-call expertise and our privacy professionals can act as the designated privacy officer for our clients.

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Media contacts:
David Fraser, McInnes Cooper (902) 424-1347 cell: (902) 478-6654 david.fraser@mcinnescooper.com
Dale Telford, Thor Solutions (902) 469-8467 cell: (902) 830-1981 dale.telford@thorsolutions.com