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.

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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.

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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.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

First-hand account of info leak scare

Today's Dallas Fort Worth Star Telegram has a first hand account written by a recipient of a letter from ABN AMRO warning that his personal information was among that temporarily lost by a courier company. The author, Dave Lieber, did a bit of digging around and found he wasn't alone. In fact, he was among 57 million individuals affected by more than 142 recently-reported data breaches/losses. As it turns out, his information was soon found but he's going to be keeping a more watchful eye on his bank statements and credit reports.

The best preventive measure is to regularly check your credit report for suspicious activity.

A Web site - www.annualcreditreport.com - lets you request a free credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus each year. Chris Hoofnagle, senior counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, suggests you ask for one report every four months.

"You end up monitoring your credit so if something bad happens, you can quickly intervene," he said.

What are you looking for? "Anything that appears out of the ordinary," he said. Credit card "accounts that do not belong to you. Also, addresses and personal information that do not pertain to you. If there are errors, you call the credit reporting agencies and try to correct them."

Frederick Scholl, a security expert in New York, told me that he monitors his credit reports and his bank statements.

"People have gotten too lax," he said. "If you have Internet access, you can go in and check your statements on a regular basis and look for charges on your accounts. It just means you need to look at your own personal information statements on a regular basis more than you did in the past."

Hoofnagle says: "There's little an individual can do to prevent crime, but there are things you can do to reduce the risk.

Labels: information breaches