The provincial government is blaming human error for a privacy breach that shared personal information about Children’s Disability Services (CDS) clients with service agencies and community advocates that work with individuals with disabilities.
On Wednesday, CDS staff accidentally sent an email that was meant for the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY), to about 100 agencies and advocacy groups.
The email included a spreadsheet with personal info, including the diagnosis and address, of about approximately 9,000 children, as well as info about a situation being reviewed by MACY.
While the email included personal information about these children the province says it didn’t include personal health identification numbers, social insurance numbers or any financial information.
The spreadsheet was password-protected, but the password was also provided.
The province called the agencies and groups that received the email to confirm it was deleted.
The province is asking the affected families to advise them of the breach and apologizes for the error, and says they’ll be following up by email or mail.
The department is following up with staff to review and improve processes to avoid this happening again.
MACY has been informed of this issue.
This matter has also been referred to the Manitoba Ombudsman, as is standard practice.
