For immediate release
April 23, 2013
Ottawa – The Honourable Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, outlined the steps taken by the Government to protect the privacy of Canadians in response to an Order Paper Question detailing the number of privacy breaches by public servants.
The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, added "We take all incidents very seriously – any error is completely unacceptable. To safeguard against future incidents, I have directed my Department to review the ways that employees handle Canadians' data, update network security practices to prohibit external hard drives, and provide more mandatory training for all employees on the proper handling of sensitive and personal information."
Since 2006, the Government has implemented new actions to strengthen privacy protection and implement stringent reporting mechanisms. These include:
- Reporting privacy breaches to the Privacy Commissioner and taking swift measures to address the situation;
- Completing privacy impact assessments for all new or substantially modified programs or activities;
- Implementing the Directive on Privacy Practices, requiring all federal government institutions to have plans for addressing privacy breaches;
- Creating the Policy on Privacy Protection, requiring that all federal government institutions notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of any planned activities that could have an impact on the privacy of Canadians; and
- Developing new guidelines for responding to privacy breaches, which provides direction for institutions in identifying and preventing privacy breaches, as well as a "roadmap" on what to do when a breach occurs.
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For more information, contact:
Matthew Conway
Press Secretary
Office of the President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for FedNor
613-957-2666
Media Relations
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
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