Commissioner’s Blog

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...

Twice a year, I take the opportunity to visit a different community as part of the IPC’s Reaching Out to Ontario program. These visits give me, and the IPC executive team, a chance to update those working in the public service and health sectors − as well as the public − on emerging access ...

Do you know you have the right to access government information? Do you know how to exercise that right? Under Ontario’s access and privacy laws, you can request access to your personal information – as well as general information − held by provincial and municipal government institutions. ...

“Right to Know Week raises awareness of the role of freedom of information as a pillar of democracy. The right to access government-held information provides citizens with a window into how their governments are operating, supporting transparency, accountability and civic engagement. These demo...

Political parties hold power in government. They also hold sensitive personal information about individuals. For privacy and democracy, it can be a troubling mix. Data collected about individuals is on the rise, spurred on by advancements in computing and technology. Sophisticated analysis techni...

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the new GDPR, but do you know what it means for your organization? Today the IPC released a new fact sheet on the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new privacy law that came into effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR applies ...

Today, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial privacy authorities jointly released a set of lesson plans designed for educators to teach students about privacy rights, digital literacy and online safety. These publications support a resolution by international privacy regulators calling f...