Privacy laws need update, watchdog says

Record delays in accessing personal information held by Ottawa, along with more than six dozen breaches of sensitive data last year alone, show Canada’s privacy laws are in dire need of updating, a federal watchdog says.

In her annual report tabled Thursday, Canada’s privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart paints a picture of a bureaucracy governed by obsolete legislation that provides few incentives to report when data have been compromised and offers little recourse to citizens if their personal information is misused.

Stoddart’s office received 986 complaints about the government’s handling of private information last year — a 39-per-cent increase over the previous year — most of them targeting the Correctional Service Canada, the RCMP, National Defence and the Canada Revenue Agency. The majority of complaints centred on problems citizens encountered while trying to access information about themselves held by government departments and the time it took to get a response.

Meanwhile, data breaches involving government-controlled personal information were at their highest level in recent years, with 80 reported cases in 2011-12, a 25-percent rise over the previous year.

But because the reporting of data breaches is voluntary, the commissioner’s office was unable to determine if the number of breaches actually increased or whether departments took more initiative in reporting them.

Her report also highlights problems at a number of government departments, including the Canada Revenue Agency, which saw a 23per-cent increase in complaints last year.