Voters’ information stored on unencrypted USB keys.
from Inside Queen's Park Vol 25, No 17
Ontario’s Information & Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, is not someone IQP would judge to be a scold, though she certainly often does speak directly and indeed bluntly when addressing the fundamental issues arising in the mandates within her jurisdiction.
The Commissioner’s exasperation was quite obvious in her July 17 news conference on the massive Elections Ontario breach of personal information. Though she lamented that failures to protect personal information left her “driven to distraction”, she told this reporter that EO’s Greg Essensa could turn the situation around if anyone could.
Small wonder that Cavoukian’s investigation into the breach prompted her to use stronger language and adopt a colder tone, declaring herself “astounded” in the July 31 news release on the Information & Privacy Commissioner’s Office investigation when it revealed that EO staffers who resumed work on the ‘Strike-off’ Project’ had continued to use personal information on unencrypted USB keys.
Only the PCs have a position, which calls for “proper protocols” to restore faith in Elections Ontario.
Cavoukian slammed that crass and grossly irresponsible action by senior staff as “completely unacceptable”. Her second news release contained no supportive suggestion that the current captain and crew could be trusted to get the good ship Elections Ontario back on course.
Yesterday, only the PCs had adopted a position on the EO situation. Echoing Cavoukian’s observation that personal information is “the currency in which EO trades”, Government Accountability Critic John O’Toole calls for the three parties to develop “proper protocols” to restore faith in EO and preclude ID theft.
O’Toole calls for Essensa to be called before a legislative committee, which is quite in order. But O’Toole then tried to have it both ways — first, by acknowledging that EO is an “independent agency” and then in the same sentence saying the breach “seems to be yet another scandal happening under the watch of the tired and scandal-plagued McGuinty Liberal government”. That’s a very slippery slope indeed.
Related SGN story: Voters’ information compromised
About Inside Queen's Park
This article was first published in Inside Queen's Park, which is published twenty-two times per year by GP Murray Research Limited. IQP offers widely respected analysis of, and insight into, the inner workings of Ontario government and politics. Its contents are copyright and reproduction, in whole or in part by any means without permission of the editor, is strictly forbidden.
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