Privacy recommendations rejected

Cape Breton school officials, commissioner disagree about surveillance

Cape Breton school officials rejected recommendations made by the province’s privacy commissioner following an inadvertent security breach.

The Rankin School of the Narrows in Iona made headlines last May when it was discovered that a camera pointed toward a male washroom entrance was being livestreamed on the internet.

The school surveillance system was taken offline after school officials reset a default password on its cameras.

In its annual report released earlier this week, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Nova Scotia notes that an investigation into the matter identified security weaknesses with internet-enabled video surveillance cameras and a video surveillance program based on a perception of fulfilling a security purpose.

Catherine Tully, Nova Scotia’s information and privacy commissioner, wrote in the report that cameras used to capture students entering and leaving a boys washroom “were of particular concern because information about students entering and exiting a washroom may be more sensitive than images of students in other public areas of a school.”

Tully found that the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education substantiated its surveillance program using the concept of crime prevention through environmental design but gave no indication that it considered the responsibilities of a public body collecting, storing and using personal information under Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy.

It also found that the centre for education rejected recommendations that were made by the privacy commissioner’s office including disabling the camera outside the boys washroom.

Instead the school readjusted the camera to collect images outside the boys and girls washrooms.

The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education declined requests for an interview on Thursday.

Centre for education spokesperson Michelle MacLeod said in an email that administrators are committed to taking steps to protect personal information while balancing their responsibility toward student safety and security.

“School washrooms tend be locations with the highest incidence of bullying, vandalism or other inappropriate student activity,” MacLeod said in the email statement.

“Video surveillance positioned in corridors which contain washrooms may act as a deterrent to inappropriate behaviour in conjunction with other building design features such as not having entrance doors on multi-user washrooms.”

MacLeod said Thursday that the camera originally located outside the male multi-user washroom at Rankin school was “repositioned” to view the main corridor in the school.

She said entrances to the multi-user washrooms are not identified in the camera’s new position.