The Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Developments in privacy law and writings of a Canadian privacy lawyer, containing information related to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (aka PIPEDA) and other Canadian and international laws.

Search this blog

Recent Posts

On Twitter

About this page and the author

The author of this blog, David T.S. Fraser, is a Canadian privacy lawyer who practices with the firm of McInnes Cooper. He is the author of the Physicians' Privacy Manual. He has a national and international practice advising corporations and individuals on matters related to Canadian privacy laws.

For full contact information and a brief bio, please see David's profile.

Please note that I am only able to provide legal advice to clients. I am not able to provide free legal advice. Any unsolicited information sent to David Fraser cannot be considered to be solicitor-client privileged.

David Fraser's Facebook profile

Privacy Calendar

Archives

Links

Subscribe with Bloglines

RSS Atom Feed

RSS FEED for this site

Subscribe to this Blog as a Yahoo! Group/Mailing List
Powered by groups.yahoo.com

Subscribe with Bloglines
Add to Technorati Favorites!

Blogs I Follow

Small Print

The views expressed herein are solely the author's and should not be attributed to his employer or clients. Any postings on legal issues are provided as a public service, and do not constitute solicitation or provision of legal advice. The author makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained herein or linked to. Nothing herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.

This web site is presented for informational purposes only. These materials do not constitute legal advice and do not create a solicitor-client relationship between you and David T.S. Fraser. If you are seeking specific advice related to Canadian privacy law or PIPEDA, contact the author, David T.S. Fraser.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Privacy Commisioner of Canada releases her report on the CIBC faxing incidents 

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has just released her report on the "CIBC faxing incident", in which faxes related to customers of the bank repeatedly were sent to a junk yard in West Virginia and Dorval, Quebec. The incident garnered a huge amount of press when the incidents came to light and CIBC faced a barrage of criticism for allowing it to continue unabated for three years. In her Incident Summary and Addendum (released today at 1:00 Eastern), the Commissioner found fault with the bank's practices that meant repeated incidents were never brought to the attention of senior management who were supposed to be responsible for the organization's privacy compliance. The Commissioner also criticises the bank for not informing customers that these incidents had taken place. (The Canadian media only became aware of it when the owner of the junk yard in West Virginia made it public.) The Commissioner also notes, in her press release, that
“simply publishing a privacy policy does not make a business privacy compliant. Organizations must ensure that all employees are aware of and adhere to privacy policies. When there are breaches, these must be brought to the immediate attention of the organization’s privacy officials,” said Ms. Stoddart. This did not happen with CIBC.

Organizations, large and small, must make sure that all employees are aware of their privacy obligations. There has to be a mechanism to ensure that all privacy-related incidents, large and small are brought to the attention of a senior officer, whose job includes constant awareness of the big picture and what is going on. The problem at CIBC was that each individual fax was a "minor incident" that was probably easy to dismiss as a "one off". When this happens hundreds of times, and nobody thinks to report it to senior management, it can quickly turn into a major disaster. There hasn't been any suggestion (yet) that anyone has been harmed as a result of this incident, but the bank has been working overtime to address customer concerns.

I still hear from business who think they are 100% compliant with Canada's privacy laws because they have a privacy policy or get customers to sign consent forms. That's a start, but it is a long way from compliance. I have yet to see a business end up on the front page for not having a privacy policy or for using the wrong form. The incidents that wind up causing huge problems are those caused by lack of training and awareness on the part of employees and a lack of a "culture of privacy" in the company.

The Commissioner also notes, in her press release:

In light of these events and other current investigations by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner into similar cases involving misdirected faxes within the banking sector, we strongly urge all organizations subject to PIPEDA to assess their policies and privacy management practices and address any shortcomings.

The current environment of identity theft and increased concern about privacy among the general public means that this is no longer an issue that businesses can afford to become complacent about. "Can this incident happen to us?" is a question that has to be asked. For too many businesses, the answer is yes and, for some, it is merely a matter of time.

For more coverage, see

Labels: , ,

Links to this post:

Create a Link

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours? Creative Commons License
The Canadian Privacy Law Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License. lawyer blogs