The Collection and Retention of Information for the Expression of Interest

Program or activity that does NOT involve a decision about an identifiable individual

Personal information is used strictly for statistical / research or evaluations including mailing list where no decisions are made that directly have an impact on an identifiable individual.

The Directive on PIA applies to administrative use of personal information. The Policy on Privacy Protection requires that government institutions establish an institutional Privacy Protocol for addressing non-administrative uses of personal information.

Administration of Programs / Activity and Services

Personal information is used to make decisions that directly affect the individual (i.e. determining eligibility for programs including authentication for accessing programs/services, administering program payments, overpayments, or support to clients, issuing or denial of permits/licenses, processing appeals, etc.).

Compliance / Regulatory investigations and enforcement

Personal information is used for purposes of detecting fraud or investigating possible abuses within programs where the consequences are administrative in nature (i.e., a fine, discontinuation of benefits, audit of personal income tax file or deportation in cases where national security and/or criminal enforcement is not an issue).

Criminal investigation and enforcement or national security

Personal information is used for investigations and enforcement in a criminal context (i.e. decisions may lead to criminal charges/sanctions or deportation for reasons of national security or criminal enforcement).

• Only personal information provided by the individual — at the time of collection — relating to an authorized program & collected directly from the individual or with the consent of the individual for this disclosure / with no contextual sensitivities.
• The context in which the personal information is collected is not particularly sensitive. For example: general licensing, or renewal of travel documents or identity documents.

• Personal information provided by the individual with consent to also use personal information held by another source / with no contextual sensitivities after the time of collection

• Social Insurance Number, medical, financial or other sensitive personal information and/or the context surrounding the personal information is sensitive. Personal information of minors or incompetent individuals or involving a representative acting on behalf of the individual
• For example: the personal information by association indirectly reveals information on the health, financial situation, religious or lifestyle choices of the individual.

• Sensitive personal information, including detailed profiles, allegations or suspicions, bodily samples and/or the context surrounding the personal information is particularly sensitive.
• For example: the personal information by association indirectly reveals intimate details on the health, financial situation, religious or lifestyle choices of the individual and other individuals, such as relatives.

Within the institution (among one or more programs within the same institution)

With other federal institutions

With other or a combination of federal/ provincial and/or municipal government(s)

Private sector organizations or international organizations or foreign governments

One-time program or activity

Typically involves offering a one-time support measure in the form of a grant payment as a social support mechanism.

Short-term program

A program or an activity that supports a short-term goal with an established “sunset” date.

Long-term program

Existing program that has been modified or is established with no clear “sunset”.

Does the new or modified program or activity involve the implementation of a new electronic system, software or application program including collaborative software (or groupware) that is implemented to support the program or activity in terms of the creation, collection or handling of personal information?

Does the new or modified program or activity require any modifications to IT legacy systems and / or services?

- Enhanced identification methods

This includes biometric technology (i.e. facial recognition, gait analysis, iris scan, fingerprint analysis, voice print, radio frequency identification (RFID), etc.) as well as easy pass technology, new identification cards including magnetic stripe cards, “smart cards” (i.e. identification cards that are embedded with either an antenna or a contact pad that is connected to a microprocessor and a memory chip or only a memory chip with non-programmable logic).

Identify the applicable category(ies):

N/A

- Use of Surveillance:

This includes surveillance technologies such as audio/video recording devices, thermal imaging, recognition devices, RFID, surreptitious surveillance / interception, computer aided monitoring including audit trails, satellite surveillance etc.

Identify the applicable category(ies):

N/A

- Use of automated personal information analysis, personal information matching and knowledge discovery techniques:

For the purposes of the Directive on PIA, government institution are to identify those activities that involve the use of automated technology to analyze, create, compare, cull, identify or extract personal information elements. Such activities would include personal information matching, record linkage, personal information mining, personal information comparison, knowledge discovery, information filtering or analysis. Such activities involve some form of artificial intelligence and/or machine learning to uncover knowledge (intelligence), trends/patterns or to predict behavior.

Identify the applicable category(ies):

N/A

The personal information is used within a closed system.

No connections to Internet, Intranet or any other system. Circulation of hardcopy documents is controlled.

The personal information is used in system that has connections to at least one other system.

The personal information is transferred to a portable device or is printed.

USB key, diskette, laptop computer, any transfer of the personal information to a different medium.

The personal information is transmitted using wireless technologies.

Managerial harm.

Processes must be reviewed, tools must be changed, change in provider / partner.

Organizational harm.

Changes to the organizational structure, changes to the organizations decision-making structure, changes to the distribution of responsibilities and accountabilities, changes to the program activity architecture, departure of employees, reallocation of HR resources.

Financial harm.

Lawsuit, additional moneys required reallocation of financial resources.

Reputation harm, embarrassment, loss of credibility.

Decrease confidence by the staff, public, elected officials under the spotlight, institution strategic outcome compromised, government priority compromised, impact on the Government of Canada Outcome areas.

Inconvenience.

Reputation harm, embarrassment.

Financial harm.

Physical harm.