James McLeod reports:
Justice Minister Felix Collins said it’s “fairly unlikely” that anyone’s privacy was breached despite concerns raised by the province’s auditor general.
In the auditor general’s annual report on government operations, John Noseworthy wrote three accounts in the government’s Support Enforcement Division had been improperly accessed hundreds of times.
Collins said he didn’t know whether anyone has contacted the three people whose privacy may have been breached. Despite that, Collins said he’s fairly certain he knows what happened, and that there was no privacy breach.
The Department of Justice is responsible for privacy legislation, and has been investigating the matter.
[…]
In his report, Noseworthy revealed three accounts were accessed hundreds of times by HRLE employees, despite the fact the people involved were not receiving income support.
The three accounts which were accessed all belonged to HRLE employees.
Since all HRLE employees share a single username and password, it is impossible to tell who was accessing which account.
But Collins said it takes more than a name to see someone’s personal information. An HRLE employee would need a person’s social insurance number or their support enforcement file number.
For that reason, Collins said people within the Department of Justice believe it was just a case of people accessing their own information to check the status of their accounts.
Read more in The Telegram.
What they believe is of little interest to me. What can they conclusively determine/prove?