The Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Developments in privacy law and writings of a Canadian privacy lawyer, containing information related to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (aka PIPEDA) and other Canadian and international laws.

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The author of this blog, David T.S. Fraser, is a Canadian privacy lawyer who practices with the firm of McInnes Cooper. He is the author of the Physicians' Privacy Manual. He has a national and international practice advising corporations and individuals on matters related to Canadian privacy laws.

For full contact information and a brief bio, please see David's profile.

Please note that I am only able to provide legal advice to clients. I am not able to provide free legal advice. Any unsolicited information sent to David Fraser cannot be considered to be solicitor-client privileged.

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The views expressed herein are solely the author's and should not be attributed to his employer or clients. Any postings on legal issues are provided as a public service, and do not constitute solicitation or provision of legal advice. The author makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained herein or linked to. Nothing herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.

This web site is presented for informational purposes only. These materials do not constitute legal advice and do not create a solicitor-client relationship between you and David T.S. Fraser. If you are seeking specific advice related to Canadian privacy law or PIPEDA, contact the author, David T.S. Fraser.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Province apologizes in privacy snafu (Globe and Mail)

The Globe and Mail, in today's edition, has more information on the most recent breach of privacy to hit the presses:

The Globe and Mail: Province apologizes in privacy snafu:
"The Ontario government appears to have made a major privacy gaffe, mailing out thousands of cheques this week that included wrong names and social insurance numbers.
Government officials said yesterday that as many as 27,000 cheques were sent out with incorrect confidential information.
Ontario Management Board chairman Gerry Phillips blames human error and a new computer system for the security lapse.
'I take this matter extremely seriously and apologize on behalf of the government for this unacceptable release of personal information,' Mr. Phillips said. 'I want to assure the public that government officials have identified the cause of the problem and have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again.'
The cheques were issued with the correct names of the recipients, but the cheque stub contained the name of someone else as well as a social insurance number and home address.
The cheques were part of the Ontario government's child-care supplement for working families.
The issuing bank for the cheques was the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which was implicated in a separate privacy breach last week that involved the transmission of confidential bank customer data to a business in West Virginia.
'CIBC is not in any way involved in this error made by the Ontario Ministry of Finance,' bank spokeswoman Susan McDougall said in a statement. Ministry officials were also quick to stress that the CIBC played no part in the error."

Labels: information breaches