Canadian privacy & access decisions

An employee complained that her pension and benefit provider disclosed her unique identifier to a third party, failed to keep her address accurate, and failed to safeguard her personal information. The investigation found that another plan member with the same name called the provider, and was mistakenly given the complainant's ID number. This led to the complainant's address being changed to the other member's address, resulting in five misdirected mailings containing sensitive information. Although the mailings were returned unopened, the complainant's insurance coverage was cancelled due to unreturned forms. The provider admitted to disclosing the ID number without consent and failing to follow authentication procedures. The provider agreed to reinstate the insurance, revamp authentication and address-change procedures, develop a privacy plan, improve incident response, and undergo a third-party privacy audit. The OPC found the matter well-founded and conditionally resolved.

• Whether the provider disclosed the complainant's unique identifier to a third party without consent (Principle 4.3 PIPEDA)
• Whether the provider failed to keep the complainant's address information accurate (Principle 4.6 PIPEDA)
• Whether the provider failed to implement appropriate safeguards to protect personal information from unauthorized disclosure and modification (Principle 4.7 PIPEDA)
• Whether proper authentication of the caller took place before the complainant's ID number was given out (Principle 4.7.1 PIPEDA)
• Whether the provider's failure to detect and correct the erroneous address sooner constituted a contravention of Principle 4.6.1 PIPEDA

The complainant alleged that his employer disclosed detailed personal information about his absence from the workplace to other employees in his work unit. The organization used an electronic scheduling program that allowed all employees to view approved leave information, including the reason for absence, for all other employees in their unit. The organization argued this was necessary to facilitate shift exchanges and meet collective agreement obligations. The OPC found that the leave information was personal information and that the disclosure was not for purposes a reasonable person would consider appropriate under subsection 5(3) of PIPEDA. The OPC determined that less privacy-intrusive means existed and that the benefits of the system were not proportional to the loss of privacy. The organization agreed to remove employee leave information viewable by co-workers from its scheduling program within 18 months.

• Whether the disclosed leave information constituted personal information under PIPEDA
• Whether the organization's purposes for disclosing employee leave information to other employees were appropriate in the circumstances under subsection 5(3) of PIPEDA
• Whether the disclosure of leave type was necessary for the organization to meet its employee schedule management needs
• Whether the benefits of the leave exchange system were proportional to the loss of privacy experienced by employees