Get Thee a Privacy Officer!

The Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner is in the news again, this time giving a warning to law firms. See yesterday's Globe and Mail article: Firms get wrists slapped over privacy breach. This is first time Canadian law firms have been named in a privacy decision.

From the article:

As part of its conclusion, the Privacy Commissioner's office recommended Stikemans implement a host of remedial measures, including enacting a firm-wide privacy policy, appointing a Calgary-based privacy officer, and conducting comprehensive in-house privacy training with lawyers and staff.

For its part, Stikemans said it regrets not blacking out the offending information before posting it to SEDAR.

"This was just an inadvertent mistake," said Karen Jackson, the firm's Toronto-based chief privacy officer.

Here is the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner decision, Investigation Report P2005-IR-005, dated July 12, 2005. (PDF, 15 pages).

Additional commentary:

The Canadian Privacy Law Blog

Michael Geist