Dec 20, 2016

Manitoba Ombudsman has released Privacy Breach Practices in Manitoba, a report that summarizes findings and analysis from a survey distributed to 238 public-sector organizations across the province.

“Public-sector organizations hold a lot of personal and personal health information about Manitobans, which makes the careful management of that information an important issue,” said Ombudsman Charlene Paquin.

Although organizations may strive to handle personal and personal health information in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and the Personal Health Information Act (PHIA), privacy breaches can occur for a variety of reasons including human error, use of technology or employee snooping. A privacy breach can have significant consequences for the affected individuals.

Conducting this survey has provided Manitoba Ombudsman with valuable insights about current privacy breach management practices in the province. The survey findings, along with some of the tools and resources the office is developing, can assist organizations in making improvements to their policies and practices for managing privacy breaches.

“Knowing that privacy breaches can happen in so many different ways means that organizations really need to think about how to manage a breach should it occur. How an organization handles a privacy breach can both reduce the overall impact as well as prevent similar breaches from occurring in the future,” said Paquin.

Privacy Breach Practices in Manitoba and related resources are available on the ombudsman’s website at: https://www.ombudsman.mb.ca/info/privacy-breaches.html