Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner – Report P-2011-002 Released

The Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ed Ring, has released his Report P-2011-002 under authority of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. A summary of the Report is included below.

To view the Report in its entirety, please go to www.oipc.nl.ca/privacyreports.htm

Report:           P-2011-002
Report Date:   October 28, 2011
Public Body:    Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador and Central Regional Health Authority

Summary:

On February 17, 2010 the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission (“WHSCC”) contacted this Office to advise of a potential privacy breach that had occurred at a Central Regional Health Authority (“Central Health”) hospital involving a research project sponsored by WHSCC and carried out by researchers from Memorial University (“Memorial”). This project involved the creation of a registry of the health and employment records of former Baie Verte miners. Concerns were raised by Memorial regarding this Office’s jurisdiction to conduct an investigation into this matter and it refused to fully cooperate with this Office. The Commissioner found that this Office does have the statutory jurisdiction to conduct privacy investigations and that public bodies should cooperate fully. In this case, the Commissioner held that he was not able to fully assess the compliance of Memorial with the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (ATIPPA) due to its decision not to cooperate fully with this investigation, however he did find, based on the information available, that Memorial had engaged in an inappropriate collection of personal information in violation of the ATIPPA. The Commissioner determined that Central Health was the source of the breach through its disclosure of personal information, but it had subsequently done all it could to remedy the privacy breach and to avoid a reoccurrence in the future.

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Media contact:
Ed Ring
Information and Privacy Commissioner
709-729-6309

2011 11 02                          1:05 p.m.