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.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Your life secrets, left in a taxi 

I didn't hear about this incident: Apparently last month, a USB "thumb drive" containing sensitive personal information of ONE HUNDRED TWENTY THOUSAND current and former patients of Wilcox Memorial Hospital in Hawai'i went missing. No word on where it went. (See: TheHawaiiChannel - KITV 4 News - Kauai Hospital Missing Drive With Patients' Social Security Numbers.)

Bob Sullivan, at MSNBC, uses it as an example of the latest challenges facing custodians of personal information: information is mobile and huge quantities of personal information can leave your control on thumb-drives, laptops, iPods, Blackberries and the like. See Your life secrets, left in a taxi - Security - MSNBC.com.

As I mentioned in a previous post about the Boeing missing laptop incident, the solution is to not let this information go on a walkabout. If you have an employee who needs access to sensitive data offsite, provide access using a secure VPN. And two-factor authentication. And a dumb terminal. That doesn't address all the data that goes on an unauthorized sojourn, but it does deal with those companies that let relatively unsecured data wander about in easily stolen devices.

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