Alex Boutilier reports:
The federal government has quietly logged 101 breaches of Canadians’ private information over the last four months, the Star has learned.
Numbers released by Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien’s office reveal his office was informed of a privacy breach an average of almost once a day since April 1.
The majority of these breaches occurred in two departments: Veterans’ Affairs Canada (38) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (31). Canada Revenue Agency experienced another 14 breaches.
Eleven other departments — including Foreign Affairs and Trade, Employment and Social Development, and Transport Canada — reported between one and four breaches to Therrien’s office.
While the affected departments are known, the circumstances around the privacy breaches have not been released.
Read more on The Star.
Requiring a centralized reporting in addition to notifying affected individuals is very helpful on a number of levels and it will be interesting to see what impact the new reporting requirement has for Ottawa agencies.