Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 19 In addition to access to information concerns, there are also privacy concerns with housing local authority records in personal email accounts. Many employees (or elected officials) are unclear how to protect local authority records in such environments. Email is not confidential by default and in some situations, records are stored outside Canada. See the Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 6, “Protection of Privacy” at Personal Email Use for Business for more on this. For more on this topic, see also IPC resource, Best Practices for Managing the Use of Personal Email Accounts, Text Messaging and Other Instant Messaging Tools. Conflict of Interest An employee (or elected official) with personal or special interest in whether records are disclosed should not be the person who decides the issue of disclosure when the records are held in the employee’s (or elected official’s) personal email account.27 When an employee is asked to search their own records to identify and provide copies of responsive records which they may not be reflected in the best light, there is an inherent conflict of interest and very human urge to expunge or attempt to hide embarrassing records. In all cases where there is a real or apparent conflict of interest in having an employee search their own records and supply responsive records, the searches should be conducted by the LA FOIP Access Coordinator or Privacy Officer.28 When determining whether there is a conflict of interest in having the employee search their own personal accounts, consider the following: (a) Does the decision-maker (employee or elected official) have a personal or special interest in the records. (b) Would a well-informed person, considering all the circumstances, reasonably perceive a conflict of interest on the part of the decision-maker.29 27 ON IPC Order MO-2867 at [22]. See also SK OIPC Review Report 023-2020, 027-2020, Part I, at [37]. 28 Office of the Nunavut Information and Privacy Commissioner (NU IPC) Review Report 16-102 at [4] and [5]. 29 ON IPC Order MO-2867 at [22]. See also SK OIPC Review Report 023-2020, 027-2020, Part I, at [37].
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