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Amanda Stephenson
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The Medicine Hat Catholic School Division is apologizing after personal student information was accidentally posted to a publicly accessible location on the internet.
Information relating to 75 students at St. Mary’s School — information such as behaviour records, notes about student needs and attendance that was meant to be viewed by teachers only — was accidentally transferred to a public location rather than a private staff file on Aug. 25.
According to superintendent David Leahy, the division didn’t realize what had happened until last Tuesday, when a local resident who works as a privacy officer reported hearing that confidential student information had shown up online. Later that day, a parent called to report having seen student information on the internet.
Leahy said the problem likely became apparent when students Googled their own names. The information has now been pulled from the public site and both Medicine Hat Catholic and Alberta’s Privacy Commissioner are investigating.
Leahy explained the error was an isolated incident, and an unfortunate accident.
“While this exposure of personal information is regrettable and unacceptable and we sincerely apologize for it, there is not going to be any disciplinary action because it was human error,” Leahy said.
Medicine Hat Catholic has already launched a complete review of its file transfer protocol. They have also modified their system so that if a similar mistake happens again, search engines such as Google will be unable to access the content. Leahy said the Office of the Privacy Commissioner may have its own suggestions for further action when it completes its own review, but it is more likely it will use Medicine Hat Catholic’s experience as a case study or warning for other agencies.
“Unfortunately, our mistake is our mistake, but other organizations down the road may be looking at this,” Leahy said. “Because of our mistake, the knowledge base on how to deal with things like this just got bigger.”
Medicine Hat Catholic is in the process of contacting every individual whose information was involved in the privacy breach. In addition, the division is sending a letter to all parents in the division to let them know what has happened.
“We felt it was important to be open and accountable,” Leahy said. |
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