FREE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BLOG FOR PROFESSIONALS

LifeLabs is seeking a court order to prevent the public release of provincial privacy commissioners’ joint report about its 2019 privacy breach. The privacy commissioners of Ontario and B.C. issued a joint investigation report about LifeLabs’ privacy breach involving millions of its customers. The commissioners say that the public release of the investigation report is vital to bringing to light the underlying causes of the privacy breach and rebuilding public trust by being transparent about their investigation and findings. However, LifeLabs is seeking a court order preventing the public release claiming that some of the information it provided to the commissioners is privileged or confidential. This is “a claim which the commissioners take issue with,” as noted in a joint press release issued by the commissioners. LifeLabs confirmed that it’s going to comply with all of the commissioners’ orders and the recommendations laid out in the report. The commissioners’ offices say the...

The privacy commissioners of Ontario and B.C. have found that LifeLabs failed to protect customers’ personal information in the 2019 data breach. Last year in December, the company disclosed that it suffered a data breach that affected the information of about 15 million customers. The information included names, emails, addresses, health card numbers and lab tests. The joint investigation has now found that the company failed to implement proper safeguards to protect the personal health information of millions of Canadians, and violated privacy laws in both provinces. LifeLabs “collected more personal health information than was reasonably necessary,” according to the investigation. It also “failed to take reasonable steps to protect the personal health information in its electronic systems” and “failed to have adequate information technology security policies in place.” Both of the commissioners have ordered LifeLabs to implement several measures to address these flaws. For ins...

Vancouver-based national carrier Telus is planning to build a commercial office and innovation centre in downtown Victoria, B.C. The centre will become Telus’ regional headquarters for approximately 250 employees. It will also be home to an innovation hub that will showcase advanced communications and information technology. The carrier is paying $8.1 million to purchase the property from the city, along with an additional $1.1 million purchase price adjustment depending on the final proposal submitted and approved as part of the rezoning process. Telus is working with Victoria-based Aryze Developments as a community development partner. The Aryze project team will ensure the initiative progresses in alignment with the shared goals of the community, the city and Telus. “Together, Telus and Aryze are seeking to bring forward an architecturally-significant project; one that will create an opportunity for Victoria to be at the forefront of new technology and contribute to the social...

SaskTel is investing $324 million in Saskatchewan between 2020 and 2021 to improve services across the province. The carrier says it is investing over $1.4 billion over the next five years to enhance wireless, internet, television, data and IP-based technologies. “How we connect and interact with one another has dramatically changed in a very short time frame, but thanks to important investments like these, our advanced and robust networks will continue to keep our customers connected to what matters most to them today and well into the future,” said Doug Burnett, the president and CEO of Sasktel, in a press release. SaskTel notes that $73 million will go towards the Fibre to the x (FTTx) program, which is an initiative to upgrade its wireline broadband network to meet growing demand and bring its fibre optics network to customers’ homes and businesses. Further, $35 million will go towards wireless network enhancements, and $78.9 million is designated towards rural wireless enhanc...

Four different Canadian privacy commissioners have joined forces to investigate Clearview AI and how it relates to facial recognition in law enforcement. The AI program is capable of scraping images of people from the internet and matching their faces with user-uploaded pictures. It’s believed to have over 3 billion photographs of people in its database. That means if you committed a crime, a police agency would be able to upload a security camera photo of you and the AI would potentially be able to tell the police who you are. Several reports are claiming that this service is taking people’s data without consent. Now, privacy officers from Britsh Columbia, Quebec, Alberta and the Federal Privacy Commissioner are working together to understand the issue. Beyond just being used by law enforcement, Clearview AI is also working with financial institutions, although it’s less clear regarding what it’s doing there. This investigation is still active, so there isn’t a ton of information...

Federal computer systems are aging and at risk of failure, according to newly released briefing notes for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The systems, which deliver billions in benefits, are in a dire state and reportedly require immediate attention from the government. The Canadian Press obtained the briefing notes, which outline that some of the systems are nearly 60 years old and are built on “outdated technology” that can’t be maintained anymore. During Trudeau’s election campaign last year, the Liberals promised to improve services for Canadians. However, since these types of problems require long-term spending commitments, they aren’t often a priority for politicians. “These aging platforms neither meet the desired digital interaction nor are capable of full automation, and thus are unable to deliver cost-savings through back-office functions,” the notes read. Andre Leduc, the vice-president of government relations and policy with the Information Technology Association of C...

Indian authorities have arrested 32 people for being involved in the use of call centres to scam Canadians for money. Deputy police commissioner Sameer Sharma said that the call centres were specifically targetting Canadian citizens and the department was made aware of the situation on November 15th. On November 17th, the police arrested the individuals and also seized 55 computers and 35 phones, CTV News reported. Sharma said that the police found several scam calls in progress that showed computer screens with Canadian phone numbers; three supervisors of the call centre were also present. “The supervisors…were asked about the activity going on there but they could not give any satisfactory answer,” Sharma said. “On sustained questioning, they divulged that they were engaged in calling [Canadians] and impersonating [themselves] as genuine Canadian police.” Scam calls have risen in the country over the past several months. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Co...