Ontario’s new emergency order allowing first responders to obtain someone’s personal information and COVID-19 status doesn’t do enough to protect that personal data, privacy experts say.
The text of the new regulation doesn’t specify how the identifiable data should be handled or what happens to it after the province’s state of emergency ends, said Ann Cavoukian, the province’s former information and privacy commissioner. “I want some clear limitations on what people are permitted to do with it,” Cavoukian said in an interview Tuesday. “Maybe they are authorized to receive it, but they should not be permitted to disclose it.