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Health department apologizes for privacy breach

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Some travellers self-isolating in Yellowknife had their identities revealed by a government worker who sent an email recommending COVID-testing, and their email addresses, and some of their names, were visible to others on the distribution list. 

SA国际影视传媒淭his resulted in a breach of your information,SA国际影视传媒 stated Michele Herriot, the ' chief information officer, in an April 22 letter obtained by Northern News Services.

An email entitled SA国际影视传媒淚mportant Information from the COVID-19 Secretariat" was sent to 1,211 unique email addresses at 9:44 p.m. on April 19, according to Dawn Ostrem, manager of the COVID-19 Operations Communications with the COVID Secretariat.

Earlier on the same date, news media had received a similar email at 7:30 p.m. stating that wastewater samples analyzed in Yellowknife between April 14 and 17, 2021 had signaled undetected COVID-19. It had asked anyone who has travelled outside the NWT and self-isolating or self-monitoring between those dates in Yellowknife to arrange for COVID-19 testing.

The media public health advisory "contained a general public notification of the wastewater test results which included similar recommendations for the public," stated Ostrem.

Herriot attributed the April 19 violation of privacy to SA国际影视传媒渉uman error.SA国际影视传媒 

SA国际影视传媒淭he (COVID Secretariat) employee recognized the error immediately and attempted to recall the email but this recall was not successful in most cases,SA国际影视传媒 reads the one-and-a-half-page letter. 

Measures taken 

Herriot states in the letter that the Health department is taking additional measures to ensure that further breaches of privacy donSA国际影视传媒檛 occur. 

SA国际影视传媒淭he (COVID Secretariat) will also ensure that operational staff are directed to review the current procedures for emailing personal information and privacy best practices for handling client information accordingly,SA国际影视传媒 reads the correspondence. 

The letter states that there is no further concern about personal information being disclosed from this particular incident. 

The breach has also been forwarded to the NWT Information and Privacy Commissioner, as per the Health Information Act, according to the email. 

According to the act, people concerned that their personal information has SA国际影视传媒渂een collected, used or disclosed without proper authorizationSA国际影视传媒 can seek a review through the Office of the Information Privacy Commissioner, Herriot states. 





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