PIPEDA Findings #2022-005: Hotel chain discovers breach of customer database following acquisition of a competitor

Following a data breach involving the Starwood hotel database, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) investigated Marriott International, Inc. The investigation found that Marriott's security safeguards, accountability measures, and information retention practices were inadequate at the time of the breach, leading to unauthorized access to personal information. While Marriott has taken remedial actions and the complaint is conditionally resolved, the OPC highlighted failures in access controls, antivirus software, logging and monitoring, and information storage. The OPC also found Marriott contravened accountability principles by not adequately assessing security risks during its acquisition of Starwood and retaining personal information longer than necessary.

• Adequacy of security safeguards for personal information
• Marriott's accountability and due diligence during the acquisition of Starwood
• Timeliness of information retention and deletion practices
• Adequacy of notification and mitigation measures for affected individuals