Privacy watchdog troubled by ‘explosion’ of information breaches
Flashback: MPs call for expanded privacy law
CBC News
June 30, 2009
The Saskatchewan agency overseeing how government handles personal information reported Tuesday that the province needs to clean up its act.
Gary Dickson, the Saskatchewan information and privacy commissioner, reported that his office handled 62 complaints of a privacy breach in 2008, up from just two investigations in 2004.
“This explosion in the volume of breach of privacy complaints … constitutes the single most significant change in our caseload,” Dickson said on Tuesday.
His 2008-09 report released Tuesday highlights some of the cases he examined.
“We dealt with inappropriate sharing of personal health information by an assortment of health professionals,” Dickson said. “We had a case where an employer shared a psychological assessment with a number of other people who had no business seeing that information. We had employment and financial information provided to the wrong person. We had the personal health information of patients exposed to the world via an internet link.”
Dickson also reported that he failed to meet his own goals for resolving complaints taken to his office.
He said he does not have enough staff to handle a backlog of files, some of which date to 2004.
Source | See Also under Privacy: UK: Passport details to be kept on ID register despite card U-turn | Use of warrantless police wiretaps flies under the radar | Mysterious people tailing recently repatriated no-fly-list refugee | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | US Cyber Security Czar Front-Runner No Friend of Privacy | Volunteer snitches man cameras in Lancaster, PA. | France forbids protesters from wearing face masks | Military spycraft patrols Ontario border from Fort Drum | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK: Shifting justifications for ID card scheme prompts call to scrap program | MPs call for expanded privacy law | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | Study finds genetic discrimination by insurance firms | UK: Spy bugs may be deployed for 2012 Olympics | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | US Federal Judge Tosses Telecom Spy Suits | UK Schoolkids Protest CCTV, Hidden Microphones in Class | Homeland Security to scan fingerprints of travellers exiting the US | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | UK installing license plate scanning network | Top court reserves decision in reporter confidentiality case | Don’t let media shield ‘criminals’, hearing told | Toronto police board challenges chief on CCTV deterrence, demands ‘phase-in’ | Police laud Toronto surveillance cameras, critics not so sure | Tories propose law allowing fingerprinting before charges are laid | Next up for France: police keyloggers and Web censorship | Criminologists: CCTV schemes in city and town centres have little effect on crime | Saudi files for ‘killer’ tracking chip patent | Ontario’s high-tech driver’s licences pose privacy risk: watchdog | France passes ‘three strikes’ Internet surveillance law | UK: New biometric security checks could include brain scans, heart rhythm fingerprinting | SMS texts being data mined in France: Man strip searched, held after joke | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | UK wants industry to track Internet users as plans scrapped for state database | Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill | NSA Surveillance Exploding, Americans Wiretapped Beyond Congressional Limits | UK: DNA pioneer Alec Jeffreys: drop innocent from database | Manitoba board considers random drug tests for high school students | French legislators reject internet piracy bill | Trash search doesn’t violate privacy rights, says top court | Britons block Google Street View van | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | Britain may snoop on social websites | London Police Encourage Citizens To Inform on Neighbour’s Garbage | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Google Street View comes to Canada | Right to privacy broken by a quarter of UK’s public databases, says report | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | Smart licences now available for border-hopping Quebecers | Pentagon plans blimp to spy from new heights | Internet ad tracking system will put a ’spy camera’ in the homes of millions, warns founder of the web | Researchers use brain scans to read people’s memories | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | TASER launches new headcam for police – with ‘privacy mode’ | NY Times: Mileage Tax Would ‘Track Where Motorists Have Been’ | UK police maintain databank on thousands of protesters | UK: Civil servants attacked for using anti-terror laws to spy on public | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Obama tries to kill lawsuit challenging wiretapping program, fails | UK: Government plans to keep DNA samples of innocent | UK: DNA details of 1.1m children on database | UK security whitepaper urges ‘end of privacy’ | Remote-controlled planes could spy on British homes | Do you snoop on your teen? | US Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police | Predator drones patrolling border irk Manitoba MLA | Former MI5 chief: UK Ministers ‘using fear of terror’ to restrict civil rights | Do We Need a New Internet? | UK: Landlord fights police plan for CCTV at pub | Former privacy czar Radwanski acquitted of fraud charges | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Security cameras proposed for downtown Sydney | Google to enter market for energy use tracking | Obama’s Change: Expanding the Power of the NSC and Shadow Government | UK House of Lords warns over ’surveillance state’ | Controversial US measure would require DNA sampling at arrest | Montreal in bid to unmask protesters | Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records | Let’s face it, soon Big Brother will have no trouble recognising you | U.S. visitors now required to register online with Department of Homeland Security | UK: Face scanners to be installed in schools | Regulator will force cellphone companies to adopt GPS tracking system | Military challenge: Make spy data more accessible | EU Police set to step up warrantless hacking of home PCs | UK: ‘Spy-in-sky’ trials get the go-ahead despite Government promise to scrap road-pricing plan | Private firm may administer UK surveillance database | Calls for GPS-tracked ’speed-limiting’ cars in UK | UK: Big Brother CCTV to spy on pupils aged four – complete with CPS evidence kit | Oregon Governor Wants GPS-Tracked Vehicle Mileage Tax | Toronto surveillance project to enter new phase pending review | UK: Bailiffs get power to use force on debtors | CSIS monitoring calls between suspects and their lawyers | Bestiality, suicide questions OK for job applicants, Halifax concludes | Supreme Court set to consider privacy rights | SWAT Teams raiding Amish, Food Co-ops in Rural US | Drug-sniffing dog plan for BC SkyTrain unconstitutional: legal critics | UK Big Brother police to get ‘war-time’ power to demand ID in the street | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Pentagon earmarks 20,000 additional troops for American streets | Ontario to place prosecutors in police stations | Safety report author Falconer on armed police in schools: “Facile” | Two More U.S. Military Units Assigned For Homeland Security | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook | If released, security detainee Almrei to be surveilled, wiretapped, and GPS-tracked | Top court to decide whether trash is private | ‘Timid’ police watchdog needs teeth: Ontario ombudsman | Was Canada’s Privacy Commissioner targeted for opposition to intrusive security policies? | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | Frequent school lockdowns raise questions | Comedian begins asking Harper question, cuffed by RCMP | 27 Toronto schools to get armed police presence | Troops in the Streets: Army Brigades Standing By to Assist in Disasters, Help Quell Dissent | ‘Environmental volunteers’ will be encouraged to spy on their neighbours | NYC Residents Furious over Invasive Surveillance Grid | Security officials to scan D.C. area license plates | DNA of ‘blameless’ youths stored | Federal parolees to wear tracking anklets in pilot project | Unmanned spy planes to police Britain | RCMP spied on… Rita MacNeil? | Troops patrolling Italian cities alongside police | Mass Arrests as Beijing Prepares for Olympics | UK Surveillance Commissioner calls for intelligence officers to work with municipalities | Protestors added to database of terror suspects | Britain considers giant database of all phone calls, EMails, browsing history | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Edmonton police rounded up women for ‘talent nights,’ hearing told | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | Police to demand blood, urine at roadside stops | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | Berlusconi puts 2,500 troops on streets of Italian cities to patrol alongside police | Justice Critic Brands Street Racing Vehicle Seizure Law as “Police State-ism” | British Terror Bill Divides Labor | Hats banned from Yorkshire pubs over CCTV fears | Youth Worker Subjected to Warrantless Raid on Secret Evidence | Crimestop: UK Police Now Expected to Collect Social, Dietary, Sexual Information | Man spends 18 hours in police cell and has his DNA taken for ‘dropping an apple core’ | In UK, anti-terror laws used to crack down on dog fouling, littering | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway | Massachusetts Police Get Black Uniforms to Instill Sense of ‘Fear’ | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State
September 11th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
[...] speed control faces scrutiny at CRTC hearings | Canada to match U.S. climate change rules | Privacy watchdog troubled by ‘explosion’ of information breaches | CSIS bungled second terror case | Obama Administration Shuts Down 9/11 Families Lawsuit | Use of [...]
September 11th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
[...] | BC Bars swipe patron IDs, collect data | Newborn’s Blood Samples Raise Questions of Privacy | Privacy watchdog troubled by ‘explosion’ of information breaches | UK: Passport details to be kept on ID register despite card U-turn | Use of warrantless police [...]