On Data Privacy 2010 we’d like to take a moment to remind everyone that is the responsibility of both individuals and companies to make sure that personal information is safe.
Read moreA question that occupies a lot of our time in the office is why, despite growing research that clearly shows that privacy is important to Canadians, do many of us give out our personal information to anyone who asks? While we know privacy is important to people, they still trade personal information for just about anything – from a “free” service to a chance to win something. Why does what we say is important to us often not translate to our observable behaviour? Where does this disconnect happen?
Read moreTo commemorate Data Privacy Day today, we offer up our latest Top Ten list…The Top 10 Ways Your Privacy is Threatened:
Read moreIn 2000, this 15-year-old hacker brought down some of the most heavily visited websites on the net: Amazon, eBay, CNN, Yahoo!. At the time, reports claimed the hack caused a billion dollars’ worth of damage to these companies.
Read moreOn July 3, 2008 the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada announced the results of a public opinion study we commissioned on the personal information customers hand over (or refuse to) to retailers. According to the results, more than half of Canadians said that they were apprehensive about giving their personal information to retailers, citing concerns over security issues, identity theft and fraud.
Read moreToday, we issued a news release celebrating Data Privacy Day, an initiative of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. In that release we made the assertion that “We have seen a proliferation of identity theft and spam as well as a tripling of reported data breaches around the world last year” – based on an analysis of data breaches first reported in USA Today, and similar reporting by the Associated Press.
Read moreAs we close out 2007, we’d like to sound a note of caution for privacy rights in Canada. We are lucky to have a variety of protections for personal information and data at the territorial, provincial and federal levels. Nevertheless, the Commissioner took a moment last week to highlight some of the steps that need to be taken by individuals, corporations and the government in the face of continuing challenges:
Read moreThis week, we’ve been speaking to the mediaFootnote 1 about an incident at the Passport Office: a person using their online application form found that they could access others’ personal documents by changing one variable in the URL displayed in their browser. The Globe and Mail and Slashdot report that this was likely the result of an error in the code behind the web page – or an omission in the code.
Read moreIn case you missed it, last night the CBS News program 60 Minutes discussed the data breach at TJX (also known as TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Winners and Home Sense). Our report on the data breach can be found on our site. Further to our report, TJX announced they had, in fact, lost the information for 90 million cards.
Read moreWhen privacy advocates try to imagine their idea of the worst possible data breach, I doubt they could think up this catastrophe.
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