Federal workers told to stop snooping into claimants’ lives

Staff were using social media to help determine eligibility for benefits

OTTAWA — Federal workers whose job it is to determine whether someone is eligible for employment, disability or seniors’ benefits have been told to stop being amateur sleuths by searching the Facebook profiles of applicants.

The order came after senior officials learned staff were logging on to social media websites to check suspicions they had with someone’s application for Canada Pension Plan disability benefits.

And now other benefit programs — employment insurance, seniors’ benefits like old age security and the guaranteed income supplement — have been subjected to the same reminder.

The only personal information the department is allowed to collect has to come from the applicant or from a third party like a doctor, employer or family member, provided the applicant consents.

A briefing note prepared for a senior official in Employment and Social Development Canada last year says that employees determining eligibility for CPP or old age security payments shouldn’t be starting an “investigation, surveillance, or the collection and use of information from the Internet, newspapers, funeral homes or any other public sources in carrying out their administrative decisionmaking responsibilities.”

The briefing note provides a series of detailed examples of online searches that are considered to be over the line. They include: — Looking up an online obituary notice for an application for CPP survivor benefits.

— “Friending” a CPP disability claimant on Facebook to see if pictures provide evidence that the applicant can in fact work.

— Looking up municipal property information to see if someone has lived in the country long enough to qualify for old age security benefits.

The briefing note says that using publicly available information like social media posts and even address listings could be considered “an invasion of privacy” and a violation of the Privacy Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Canadian Press obtained a copy of the briefing note under the Access to Information Act.