Commissioner’s Blog

For a topic that doesn’t often get as much media attention as its privacy counterpart, access to information has been making a lot more headlines this year. Many are urging the government to improve access to information legislation, and some are even taking it a step further — calling for a ...

The digital landscape has become an inseparable part of children and youth’s lives, offering boundless opportunities for learning, connecting, and having fun. However, amid this abundance of technology, young people don’t always see the far-reaching implications of their online activities...

Guest blog by Teresa Scassa From September 2022 until the end of June 2023, I had the privilege of being the first Scholar-in-Residence at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC). My goal was to learn more about privacy and access issues from a regulator’s perspe...

Last fall, my office issued a Transparency Challenge. We called on Ontario’s public institutions to share their best and brightest projects or programs that demonstrate a real commitment to government transparency and show how open data can have tangible benefits for the day to day lives of Ont...

On the occasion of Data Privacy Day 2023, our office hosted an event on the theme of Building Trust in Digital Health Care. Nearly three years of pandemic conditions, overburdened emergency rooms, sparse access to primary care, and an exhausted healthcare workforce have worn the country thin. Ont...

Every January 1, my family and I take turns going around the dinner table revealing our new year’s resolutions. Typically, these are well-intended aspirations to try and improve ourselves and the world around us in some small way. We write them out on a piece of paper and discuss how we will ho...

Covering my fridge at home are various photos of the kids when they were little, endless lists of things to do, upcoming appointments, random recipes, and important phone numbers. You’ll also find inspiring quotes I’ve cut and pasted over the years as reminders of the most important things in...

After careful deliberation, the IPC recently decided to launch its own Instagram account as a new way of connecting with Ontario’s children and youth to teach them about privacy risks and how to protect themselves online. Our creative comms team has already started posting quick tips about priv...

It takes years to build a reputation people can trust and seconds for a cyberattack to bring it all crashing down. Once criminals gain access to an organization’s systems and the information stored within, the door is open to identity theft, economic loss, and devastating reputational damage. G...

For Canadians, Right to Know Week is a time to reflect on our access rights and the importance of open, transparent government. This week, the IPC will spread the word about the public’s right to know by sharing resources about how individuals can exercise their access rights and how public ins...