BC’s Minister of Social Development Stakes Government’s Reputation on Safety and Privacy of new Integrated Case Management System Controversy is growing over the BC government’s new $182 million Integrated Case Management (ICM) system now being rolled out across BC. The ICM system will create a database of unprecedented scope and detail about the lives of […]

In an investigation report released yesterday, Commissioner Elizabeth Denham shot down the use of facial recognition technology by ICBC for identifying Stanley Cup rioters unless they are responding to a court order. “Facial recognition has the potential to become a technology of surveillance, and we must ensure that public bodies and private organizations using it […]

GOVERNMENT MOVES TO ROUTINELY RELEASE SOME INFORMATION, BUT LOTS OF RECORDS REMAIN BEHIND CLOSED DOORS With its new “Open Information – Open Data” policy, the BC government has taken a big step forward on how it releases information to the public. But according to the BC Freedom of information and Privacy Association, there is still […]

PLAN “LESS ABOUT WHAT GOVERNMENT IS DOING WITH ITS OWN DATA THAN WHAT IT’S DOING WITH CITIZENS’ DATA,” B.C. CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOCIATION SAYS With the unwieldy title of “Citizens @ The Centre: B.C. Government 2.0 – A transformation and technology strategy for the B.C. Public Service,” the document starts out okay. Defining principles have phrases […]

Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has announced that her office has been examining the PRIME police database, following a complaint about PRIME to BC’s Solicitor General by the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA). BCCLA’s complaint states: “The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has discovered that as many as 85% of British Columbia’s adult population have […]

A report from BC’s Auditor General says that the province has not established an effective process for monitoring the security of its information. A software tool called Security HealthCheck that monitors security policies, standards and practices has been introduced across government ministries, but the AG found that its implementation is seriously flawed. Self-assessments by more […]

This week a shocking case was revealed in which the sensitive personal information of a federal government critic was examined by hundreds of government employees. According to the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, the BC government is moving forward with unprecedented plans for personal information sharing that will make this kind of privacy […]

Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press Confidential medical and financial information belonging to an outspoken critic of Veterans Affairs, including part of a psychiatrist’s report, found its way into the briefing notes of a cabinet minister. Highly personal information about Sean Bruyea was contained in a 13-page briefing note prepared by bureaucrats in 2006 for then-minister Greg […]

Charities, non-profit groups and privacy advocates have joined forces to issue a critical report on the $180 million Integrated Case Management (ICM) project the BC government announced in February’s Throne Speech. The planned ICM system will collect comprehensive personal data from hundreds of independent community service organizations which are contracted to provide government services, in […]

Acting Information and Privacy Commissioner Paul Fraser has released the findings of an extensive investigation into the adequacy of privacy protection in Vancouver Coastal Health Authority’s community-based electronic health record system known as the Primary Access Regional Information System (PARIS). The Commissioner’s investigation found that privacy was a missing ingredient in the early development stages […]

In a letter sent to Premier Gordon Campbell today, FIPA Executive Director Darrell Evans criticized the announcement in the Speech From the Throne that $180 million will be spent to create an “Integrated Case Management system”(ICM). “The ICM system will have a severe negative effect on both the privacy rights of British Columbians and the […]

The B.C. government is getting ready to contract out its computer nerve-centre to a U.S. company, says B.C.’s biggest public-sector union. EDS Advanced Solutions, a B.C. subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard-EDS, is negotiating with the province to operate the mainframe computer servers at the government’s Victoria facility. The plan concerns FIPA because the USA Patriot Act enables […]