Commissioner’s Blog

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...

Guest blog by Teresa Scassa It is no secret that Ontario faces many challenges when it comes to privacy and data governance today. Some of these relate to ongoing efforts to ensure that our personal data and personal health information are properly stewarded in the public and healthcare sectors, ...

If you’ve read the IPC’s 2021 Annual Report, you’ll know that my office has set its sights on a vision to enhance Ontarians’ trust that their access and privacy rights will be respected. This vision rests on three key pillars: actively advancing Ontarians’ rights in key strategic areas...

Certain events in life are of such seismic proportion that they remind us of our fragility not only as human beings, but as an entire human species. I first got that feeling in the chaotic aftermath of 9/11 when I feared possible nuclear retaliation might put an end to us all. I felt it again whe...

One of the most profound and lasting effects of the pandemic has been the accelerated digitization of our lives as part of our new normal. In the IPC’s annual report I look back over my office’s activities throughout 2021 and reflect on how this work has positioned us to serve Ontarians diffe...

Over a decade ago, at the 35th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (as it was then called), the community of international data protection regulators walked away with a key take-home message: “be selective to be effective.” If that old adage was applicable th...

Every once in a while, there are privacy investigation decisions that stand out because of their precedent setting nature. One such decision is PHIPA Decision 175, which details an investigation into the sale of de-identified data by a health information custodian to a third-party corporation. My...

Data protection authorities around the world recognize Data Privacy Day every January 28 as a way of raising public awareness about the importance of privacy and data protection rights. In case you missed it, this past Friday the IPC continued its tradition of hosting an annual Privacy Day event,...

How many of us have accidentally pressed “send” on an email to the wrong person?  It happened to me several years ago when my flight was cancelled and I sent a late-night email to my husband from the back of a very dark cab, letting him know I was on my way home from the airport. I signed, �...

Throughout the past year, we continued to be tested in our ability to develop and persevere in the face of change and uncertainty, inflicted by a brutal and unrelenting pandemic. Our 2021 annual report, due out next spring, will lay out all the facts and figures of the year — numbers of cases, ...