Despite years of focus on cases involving unauthorized access to personal information — “snooping” by employees or other insiders — Ontario saw a 34-per-cent increase in this behaviour cases across all sectors in 2023, according to the Ontario Privacy Commissioner.
It’s a “stark increase” and it’s concerning, says Patricia Kosseim, commissioner of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC).
“[It’s] quite surprising given all of the efforts our office has made to denounce snooping and to educate employers around the precautions they must take to prevent and curb such behaviour.”