FEDERAL GOV'T PRIVACY BREACHES

   The federal government reported more than 200 significant privacy breaches affecting the personal information of thousands of Canadians and Canadian businesses, a number that Ottawa’s privacy watchdog suggests is the “tip of the iceberg.”
    The Star obtained documents under access to information law detailing every privacy breach reported by federal departments and agencies in 2017. Over 600 pages, government employees describe breaches ranging from misplaced student loan documents to outing confidential RCMP drug informants.
   Of all the departments reporting privacy breaches, Canada Revenue Agency has likely received the most attention. The 2017 documents show that the agency is still grappling with the problem of employees improperly looking up the tax information of friends, family, colleagues and others.
The largest breach reported by the agency in 2017 appears to be a single employee looking up the tax information of 5,935 Canadians.