A recent investigation into two large e-health databases showed “too many staff had access to too much personal information, many of the disclosures of personal information...were unauthorized and the security of the system was, at the time of the investigation, wholly in adequate,” the report says.
In another case involving privacy, an investigation into two government ministries showed that at least 26 people had sufficient information to determine that a privacy breach had occurred, yet only two recognized the fact and neither took action. The case last year involved a government employee who was alleged to have taken home personal information of 1,400 people enrolled in the government's income-assistance program.
Government needs to do more planning on how to protect people’s privacy, said Fraser in an interview. “The government has been, in my view, very tardy in doing that in spite of a variety of requests from the office over the years,” said Fraser.
Government needs to be more proactive in releasing public information, he added. Fraser notes in his report that U.S. President Barack Obama made government disclosure of information a priority when he took office.
"I think that's the sensible thing to do," said Fraser in the interview, noting a transparent government sends the message that "sharing information -- information in my view that the public has the right to have -- is something that they're willing to do and not something that they're forced to have to do."
Fraser took over as Information and Privacy Commissioner Jan. 25, when David Loukidelis resigned to become B.C.'s deputy attorney general. His term ends Monday when commissioner Elizabeth Denham begins her six-year term.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Sandra McCulloch
Quelle/Source: The Victoria Times Colonist, 01.07.2010
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