International Law

Nova Scotia review officer considers investigation of WCB over misdirected file

Last week, the Halifax Chronicle Herald reported that the provincial Workers' Compensation Board mistakenly sent the wrong person's file to an individual who was contesting his claim under the program.

It looks like it was a one-off error:

WCB sends wrong file to man - Metro - TheChronicleHerald.ca)

.... MacLean insists the board does not often mix up its clients and she can?t remember the last time a file was mailed out in error.

"Our employees all go through (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) and privacy breach training and we take this all very seriously."

And they have procedures to follow if something does go awry.

To help avoid personal information falling into a stranger?s hands, she said the envelope is stamped with a warning message that asks the recipient to alert the board if the received the envelope in error. It also asks the recipient not to open or destroy its contents.

However, she admitted, she didn?t know how anyone could tell if the file wasn?t theirs without first opening the envelope and reading the contents.

The board is mailing Kinsman his correct file, MacLean said.

Today the paper is reporting that the newly established Privacy Review Officer is considering an investigation: Privacy watchdog mulls probe of WCB - Front - TheChronicleHerald.ca.

I'm not sure that this error indicates any sort of a systemic problem, but I expect we'll hear more about it in the future.

Full post as published by The Canadian Privacy Law Blog on January 17, 2011 (boomark / email).