Privacy Issues In Canada

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Within Canada, the privacy and sharing of information is greatly important and is a concern for not only individuals, but also the organizations where this information is present. In order to address the concerns over the privacy and sharing of information, The Privacy Act was a substantial piece of legislation enacted to provide proper procedures and uphold the rights of individuals within Canada. This importance of this legislation is insurmountable, as without the guidance and procedures illustrated on obtaining information in federal organizations, numerous violation would emerge and cripple society. However, no policy or legislation is immune to flaws, coupled with the ever changing dynamic or society, issues will arise.
Within the Privacy
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This offender is serving an intermittent sentence on the weekend so he/she could continue to work at his/her job. The staff member who receives the results was then having lunch with friends outside of the work place and the name of this particular offender was brought up as he works for one of the staff member’s friends who is at lunch. The staff member then mentions the results of the drug test and how an illicit substance was found. The offender’s boss then fires the offender with this new found information because they have a strict policy about drug use. This information obtained by the staff member was wrongfully disclosed, which breach their rights and negatively influenced their …show more content…
Thus, the protocols and guidelines are structure to provide specific procedures and ensure offender’s rights are not violated. Although the Information Sharing CD is meticulous and structure to avoid issues, privacy vulnerabilities still happen. Section 25 of the Privacy Act illustrates how the government institution may refuse to disclose information if the disclosure could reasonably be expected to threaten the safety of individuals (GOC, 1985). Similarly, this is outline in section 24 of the Information Sharing CD, where information will be withheld if it would jeopardise the safety of individuals. An example of a scenario is if information came in and the decision was to withhold it because it could possibly threaten the safety of an inmate. This information identified ma inmate as a member of a gang and this facility has large number of opposing gang members who would try to harm this inmate. Although it was not disclosed, two staff members were discussing the information as they were making their rounds for the night. Subsequently, the opposing gang members heard and at the next opportunity caused harm to the inmate. This withholding of information was the proper decision; however, due to a vulnerability the inmate’s safety was still