Canadian press are all over the delays in notifying people about recent breaches. Here’s a story indicating that those whose passports were stolen weren’t notified promptly and only found out if they inquired:
Richard J. Brennan reports:
[…]
About 75 passports applications were found in a Canada Post bag along with 85 credit cards and other mail, allegedly stolen by a 28-year-old postal employee from the Gatineau postal terminal. The unnamed man was arrested Nov. 6 and released.
“A couple of weeks ago, I went to [Conservative MP Diane] Finley’s office and said `we haven’t got our passports, haven’t heard nothing about it.’ A gentleman there … called back the next day and said `You are one of the (applications) that was stolen,'” Godlouski told the Star.
The news floored Godlouski and Dearden, whose immediate concern was identity theft. The couple had turned over personal information, including original birth certificates and a credit card number to pay the passport fee.
“I said `What the heck is going on?’ but (Finley’s staff) wouldn’t tell me nothing. I wasn’t getting any damn answers at all,” Godlouski said.
A spokesperson for Finley said the minister has known about the missing applications for several weeks. But her office made little or no effort to inform applicants of the situation, save for a sign posted in the small town of Dunnville.
“The minister was aware there was a possibility that some of them (applications) may be missing and she would have found out the same time as the constituency office. … Mid-October is when the constituency office first heard anything about possible missing passport applications,” Ryan Sparrow said.
It was up to applicants to contact Finley’s riding office.
[…]
Canada Post spokesperson John Caines said identification documents such as birth certificates stolen along with the applications have all been recovered and are being held as evidence in the case.
Canada Post has offered the passport applicants $100 each to defray the cost of reapplying and obtaining new documents. It will also pay the cost of registering with an agency that helps prevent credit tampering and identity theft.
“To date, we have had contact with 36 customers and are in the process of reaching out to the remaining 39,” Caines said.
Read more in the Toronto Star.
Thanks to Sharon Polsky, President of Amina Consulting Corp. for sending this link.