Privacy and Transparency in a Modern Government

Our goal is to advance Ontarians’ privacy and access rights by working with public institutions to develop bedrock principles and comprehensive governance frameworks for the responsible and accountable deployment of digital technologies.

Our work to further this goal includes:

Showing 2 of 52 results

Title	Topics	Type	Date
Transparency, Privacy and the Internet: Municipal Balancing Acts	Privacy, Legislation, Technology and Security, Privacy and Transparency in a Modern Government	Papers, Professional Guidelines	August 4, 2015	Read moreExpand
Municipalities are turning to the Internet as a means of making information public in an effort to improve accessibility, transparency and accountability. This may include publishing records directly to their website or including records in searchable databases that can be accessed online. Publishing materials online is an effective means of ensuring that the public has access to a municipality’s information. However, when publicly available records include personal information, there are privacy implications that should be considered before that information is made available on the Internet. Municipalities should balance the need to protect the privacy of their community members, in compliance with the provincial privacy legislation and the need to meet their other legislated obligations. This new IPC guide describes a number of policy, procedural and technical options available to municipalities to mitigate the privacy risks associated with publishing personal information on the Internet.
De-identification Protocols: Essential for Protecting Privacy	Privacy, Information Management, Technology and Security, Privacy and Transparency in a Modern Government	Papers, Professional Guidelines	June 25, 2014	Read moreExpand
Information is becoming far more valuable as businesses seek to learn more about their customers and those of their competitors, and as advertisers seek to gain a competitive advantage by finding new and innovative ways to use information to target advertisements that are most relevant to their consumers. Information is also increasingly being sought for secondary uses that are seen to be in the public interest. For example, the health sector is seeking to use information to support evidence-based decision-making, to improve the quality of care provided, and to identify and achieve cost efficiencies. However, if organizations do not strongly protect the privacy of individuals in the information being sought out, there may be far-reaching implications for both the individuals and the organizations involved. For example, when individuals lose trust and confidence in the ability of an organization to protect their privacy, the reputation of that organization may be irreparably damaged in the process. One of the most effective ways to protect the privacy of individuals is through strong de-identification. Despite suggestions to the contrary, de-identification, using proper de-identification techniques and re-identification risk management procedures, remains one of the strongest and most important tools in protecting privacy.