Guidance documents for organizations

The Code of Procedure for Matters under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (Act) describes the processes the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) follows when it assesses matters under the Act, including complaints, Custodian-reported files and IPC-initiated files. This Practice Direction describes what to expect once the IPC has made a Decision on a matter it has reviewed pursuant to the Act, and it intends to release the Decision to the public.

The emergence of big data as a tool to manage and analyze large and complex data sets offers great promise and opportunity, but also raises serious privacy challenges and considerations, especially to personal privacy. Public and health sector institutions increasingly use big data tools to improve programs and public services and ensure they are supported by better evidence.

As the oversight agency for the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Personal Health Information Protection Act, the IPC is...

This fact sheet highlights the important factors an institution must consider before implementing a video surveillance system.

This guidance is designed to help institutions implement better record and information management practices and enhance the public’s ability to access information.

This fact sheet explains the meaning of the term “personal information,” and answers frequently asked questions.

This fact sheet outlines what to expect when an institution contacts you about an access request, your options for appeal, and other frequently asked questions. This document is part of a series designed to keep the public and professionals up to date with the IPC’s interpretations of access and privacy laws.

This fact sheet seeks to answer some of the common questions you may have about the freedom of information process. This document is part of a series designed to keep the public and professionals up to date with the IPC’s interpretations of access and privacy laws.

This fact sheet describes the risks of using email and custodians’ obligations under the Personal Health Information Protection Act. It outlines some of the technical, physical and administrative safeguards needed to protect personal health information when communicating by email and the policies, procedures and training custodians should have in place.

This guidance document provides institutions with an overview of important factors to consider when implementing Open Government including the need for institutional leadership, commitment, governance and resources to support culture change and sustain the program over time, learning from others, engaging both internal and external users, and meeting legal requirements.

This guidance paper is intended as a starting point for institutions considering Open Government and highlights two critical goals: enhancing access to government-held information and public participation.  It includes a discussion about making government-held information open by default and at little or no cost, and ways to enable a true two-way dialogue with the public.

This document highlights the key issues to consider when de-identifying personal information in the form of structured data and it provides a step-by-step process that institutions can follow when removing personal information from data sets.