Missing government device held ‘investigative reports’

OTTAWA — A missing hard drive from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada may have contained more than the sensitive, personal information of about 583,000 Canadians.

Internal emails suggest the data stored on the hard drive included business plans and financial information about the Canada Student Loan Program, as well as “investigative reports” that go until August 2012 about loan applicants whose eligibility was questionable. The emails also suggest that a number of those investigations focused on the 583,000 student loan recipients whose names, social insurance numbers and addresses were on the drive that was last seen in late August.

The results of an investigation will be made public, the privacy commissioner’s office said this week.