I never thought I’d ever mention Kim Kardashian in a blog post but, surprisingly, I find myself doing so in the context of a privacy breach. The “human element” in privacy violations – whether by error or omission in conduct or a willful or deliberate act – plagues organizations subject to breach notification requirements. Leaving aside […]
A “tipping point” is the culmination of small events that cause a significant change. Malcolm Gladwell tells us it comes from the world of epidemiology: that point in time in an epidemic where a virus reaches critical mass. Have we now seen the tipping point where business takes cybersecurity far more seriously than ever before?
There’s a reason why they are called “data protection” as opposed to “privacy” laws. In Canada, the privacy rights you have come from the Charter of Rights – our data protection laws provide rules principally as to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information with more than a passing nod to other topics such […]
The subject of medical research and personal information protection can quickly become a quagmire. Even raising the subject risks one being tagged as a Grinch-like character who surely must drown kittens and tell those young cancer-stricken children appearing in telethons that there’s no Santa Claus. The win-win scenario is de-identified information with good security around […]
It’s tough to be a hospital these days and I don’t envy the people trying to manage such places. But one thing I do expect is some degree of attention to the confidentiality of patient information. One hospital provides a unique set of facts that raises the question of appropriate regulatory responses.
Somewhere along the line Canadians developed an almost pathological paranoia about the U.S. PATRIOT Act but this post isn’t about that legislation. No, it’s about the new American kid on the block: the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act* (“FATCA”). It actually makes one feel sorry for financial institutions and other organizations affected by this legislation.
