A Minister’s Guide to Protecting Personal Information 2 WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION? For a definition of what is considered personal information, see subsection 24(1) of FOIP. However, subsection 24(1) of FOIP is not an exhaustive list. Generally, the following is considered personal information: Information about an identifiable individual; Information which is personal in nature; The personal views or opinions offered by an individual are the personal information of that person; The personal views or opinions of one individual about another person is the personal information of the other person; and Employment history. WHAT IS COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION? Collection is a term used to describe the action of having gathered, obtained access to, acquired, received or obtained personal information. Constituents regularly consult Ministers’ offices on problems and issues they have with government and/or the health system. In that process of asking for help, they may provide documents or give verbal information, which contains considerable sensitive personal information. This is an example of a collection. Before collecting any personal information, the Ministers’ office should pause and assess the purpose for collecting this information; and determine whether this information is necessary for such a purpose. Section 25 of FOIP provides: 25 No government institution shall collect personal information unless the information is collected for a purpose that relates to an existing or proposed program or activity of the government institution. It is important that the Ministers’ office consider the purpose for collecting personal information. In most cases, it is going to be information required to solve the problem that the citizen has. Ministers’ offices should also keep in mind the data minimization principle and only collect specific personal information that is required for the identified purposes. For example, consider which information and documents that may not be needed such as tax returns, doctor’s reports, financial statements, laboratory tests and non-relevant correspondence.
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