Commissioner’s Blog

Almost everyone with an email or instant messaging account has become used to receiving a seemingly never-ending stream of unsolicited messages. Commonly known as spam, some of these messages are “phishing attempts” where the intended goal is to get the recipient to do something that compromi...

Today I released my 2018 annual report, Privacy and Accountability for a Digital Ontario, where I call for the modernization of Ontario’s privacy laws to address the risks posed by the increasing use of digital technologies. Since my appointment as commissioner in 2015, I have emphasized the ne...

May 14 is Youth in Care Day in Ontario. It is a day recognizing the bravery and resilience of current and former wards of the province or a children’s aid society. There are currently about 12,000 children and youth in the care in Ontario. Growing up in foster care or group homes, they must nav...

The death of a family member is a stressful and emotional time. Surviving family members typically find themselves needing their family member’s personal information from government organizations or health care providers, which often requires formal requests. Finding the right organization, fil...

Planning is an essential part of preparing for the inevitable changes in life. If you are a health care practitioner, a good succession plan can ensure that you protect the people you serve from an interruption to their health care or a breach of their privacy if you change your practice. Every y...

The Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) will host a special event in Waterloo on Friday, May 31, at Wilfrid Laurier University, Science Building, 75 University Avenue in Waterloo. This event is part of the IPC’s Reaching Out to Ontario program. Commissioner Brian Beamish, along with exec...

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. General Data Protection Regulation. These were headline news for much of 2018. Both served to highlight how advancements in technology can infringe on privacy rights and the importance of valuing and protecting personal information. While it might be tempting to ...

There are more than two million students enrolled in Ontario’s public and separate schools. School boards, teachers and administrators are required to keep each student’s personal information secure and confidential. Today the IPC released A Guide to Privacy and Access to Information in Ontar...

Energy conservation sensors that dim the streetlights when no pedestrians or cars are around. A real-time parking app that maps out and directs you to the nearest available parking spot. Garbage sensors that detect when the bin is full and send a truck to empty it. These are all examples of techn...

In Ontario, your privacy rights are protected by rules limiting the collection, use and sharing of your personal information. But what happens when law enforcement is involved? Do the same rules apply? The short answer is yes. In general, under Ontario’s access and privacy laws, institutions sh...