Canadian privacy & access decisions

A complaint was filed against Health Canada alleging over-collection of personal information from First Nations and Inuit people for the Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) Program. Specifically, the complaint focused on the requirement for physicians to provide diagnostic information for medical transportation and specialist services. Health Canada acknowledged that its form often led to the unintentional collection of diagnostic information not needed for claims adjudication. The OPC found that the diagnostic information collected constituted personal information and was beyond what was necessary for the NIHB Program. Consequently, the complaint was deemed well-founded, and Health Canada was asked to develop a plan for the over-collected information and to issue guidelines for future data collection.

• Whether diagnostic information about individual patients constitutes 'personal information' under s.3 of the Privacy Act
• Whether Health Canada contravened s.4 of the Privacy Act by collecting diagnostic information about patients seeking medical transportation and specialist services that was not directly related to an operating program or activity
• Whether the collection of diagnostic information was demonstrably necessary to achieve a specific and legitimate purpose

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) investigated three complaints concerning Public Services and Procurement Canada's (PSPC) Phoenix Pay System. Complainants alleged improper disclosure of federal public service employees' personal information, with PSPC being aware of privacy issues before the system's launch. The OPC's investigation revealed at least 11 breaches, more extensive than initially reported by PSPC, involving employee names, Personal Record Identifiers (PRIs), and salary information, with government-wide vulnerabilities. These breaches stemmed from inadequate testing, coding errors, and insufficient system controls. The OPC found that PSPC failed to adequately monitor access to personal information, provide timely and sufficient notification to affected individuals, and fully address known vulnerabilities. Consequently, the OPC found the complaints to be well-founded and issued six recommendations to PSPC, some of which PSPC's proposed actions were deemed inconsistent or insufficient by the OPC.

• Whether personal information was at issue in the reported incidents
• Whether the personal information at issue was improperly disclosed
• What was the scope of the improper disclosure
• Whether the personal information that was improperly disclosed was misused
• Whether PSPC was aware of potential privacy issues with Phoenix before the launch
• What kind of harm could result from the unauthorized disclosure of the personal information at issue
• Whether PSPC resolved all of the vulnerabilities within Phoenix
• Whether PSPC provided individuals with timely information regarding the breaches and vulnerabilities
• Whether PSPC developed and implemented controls to monitor and document access to personal information held in Phoenix (Recommendation 1)
• Whether PSPC developed more robust testing and response procedures (Recommendation 2)
• Whether PSPC conducted necessary assessments to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities in Phoenix (Recommendation 3)
• Whether PSPC took measures to mitigate the increased vulnerability of information used by employees in call centres (Recommendation 4)
• Whether PSPC reviewed its breach notification practices and provided notification of the extent of the Phoenix breaches (Recommendation 5)
• Whether PSPC completed the review of pages with row-level security (Recommendation 6)