Health unit announces e-mail privacy breach
By Cecilia Nasmith
The Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit is working to address a privacy breach involving a mass e-mail sent to some 500 clients throughout the region.
The health unit's announcement said the breach involves an e-mail sent to local residents relating to COVID-19 vaccine appointments. The addresses involved are those that people had provided when booking initial COVID vaccine appointments. However, people receiving the e-mails were able to see the email addresses of all other recipients.
The health unit is immediately following up with people affected by the e-mail. The incident has also been reported to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.
“We take this issue very seriously and sincerely apologize for this incident,” Medical Officer of Health Dr. Natalie Bocking said in the bulletin.
“We are reaching out to affected individuals and also working internally to ensure there is no repeat of this situation.”
The health unit asks anyone who received these e-mails to delete them immediately, and strongly urges these recipients not to forward the e-mail to any other person or party (in order to avoid compounding the breach).
To contact the health unit, call 1-866-888-4577 ext. 5020, or e-mail info@hkpr.on.ca
