Statement from the Peel Regional Chair regarding an information breach
May 22, 2019
The Region of Peel considers the privacy of its clients to be very important and has policies and procedures in place to protect personal information. Despite this, a breach of personal information has occurred.
On March 13, 2019, the Region learned that limited personal information of approximately 13,000 individuals on a wait list for Regional services was mistakenly posted on a mapping website used for creating and sharing digital maps. The information contained names, addresses and family size and was labelled on the site as “Resident Waitlist”. It was originally posted on June 8, 2018. Upon discovery, we immediately removed the map from the website.
On May 1, 2019, we learned that the data was accessed eight times between June 8 and June 13, 2018, by individuals who are not Regional employees.
We sincerely apologize for this information breach. I want to reassure Peel residents that this was an isolated incident. We are currently reviewing our internal practices for handling personal information and will implement changes to prevent incidents such as this one from happening again.
We have begun sending letters to affected individuals to let them know of this breach of information. The Region has also reported this incident to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, which independently reviews the decisions and practices of government organizations concerning access and privacy.
Concerned residents can contact the Region of Peel at 905-791-7800. More information is provided in a detailed list of questions and answers (PDF) available at peelregion.ca.
Media Contact
Tatiana Marmora
Communication Specialist
Region of Peel
905-791-7800 x 5808
