BC Gov’t will contact thousands affected by privacy breach
Posted January 14, 2013 3:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – We now know more about the circumstances surrounding how personal and medical information was illegally accessed and shared with researchers in BC, which led to the firing of seven people.
The information was accessed once in 2010 and twice in June 2012. In each case the info was being stored on USB sticks without password protection.
Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid says personal health data was inappropriately accessed and shared with researchers and/or contractors without required permissions and protocols being followed.
“Personal health numbers, gender, dates of birth and postal codes. Information about hospital admissions and discharges, medication history and medical service plan claims. This file also had information in it which was linked from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey.”
MacDairmid says that also breached an agreement between Statistics Canada and the province. “So in this particular case, the Ministry is going to be sending personal letters to each of the individuals to inform them of what has happened with their information.”
The ministry will contact almost 38,000 people affected in one of the cases.
But MacDiarmid maintains names, social insurance numbers and financial information was protected.
