Guide to LA FOIP-Chapter 6

Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 6, Protection of Privacy. Updated 27 February 2023. 58 An individual’s home address, telephone, facsimile (fax number) or email address is personal information under LA FOIP. LA FOIP should not be taken to say that names, addresses and telephone numbers of individuals in local authority records must never be disclosed. Rather, it requires that such information must not be disclosed if the protection of privacy of an individual so requires. Individuals engaged in discharging public functions obviously do not have the same expectation of privacy when so doing as when they are going about their personal or private affairs. If “personal information” is claimed as an exemption it should not be just any information about an individual, it must be personal in the sense that it is private and that it is or should be treated as confidential so that disclosure would amount to an invasion of privacy or a breach of confidence.142 To qualify as personal information, the information must be about the individual in a personal capacity. As a general rule, information associated with an individual in a professional, official, or business capacity will not be considered to be “about” the individual.143 The IPC has consistently found that “business card information” (contact information on a business card) does not constitute personal information because it is not personal in nature.144 Business telephone numbers and addresses would qualify as personal information only if the record was personal in nature.145 The Commissioner has previously relied on the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) to support the interpretation that contact information for individuals in commercial business or private industry is not personal information. PIPEDA applies to every organization that collects, uses, or discloses personal information during “commercial activities”. Section 4.01 of PIPEDA, carves out business contact information from the type of personal information that requires protection. Subsection 2.1 of PIPEDA defines 142 SK OIPC Review Report 1993-029 at p. 6. Also cited in Review Report F-2005-001 at [28]. 143 SK OIPC Review Report F-2010-001 at [126]. Originated from ON IPC Order PO-2420 at p. 3. 144 SK OIPC Review Reports F-2006-001 at [113], F-2010-001 at [124], LA-2010-001 at [63], F-2012-006 at [138], LA-2013-002 at [84], F-2013-007 at [109], F-2014-001 at [352], F-2014-005 at [18], 158-2016 at [13], 184-2016 at [20], 207-2016 to 211-2016 at [28], 258-2016 at [13], 263-2016 to 268-2016 at [72], 277-2016 at [41] and [43], 290-2017 at [14], 302-2016 at [61], 071-2017, 072-2017, and 073-2017 at [57], 082-2017 at [20], 139-2017 at [94], 298-2017 at [19], 017-2018 at [49], 078-2018 at [48], 117-2018 at [22], 166-2018 at [114], 108-2019 at [146], 135-2019 at [57], 186-2019 at [30], 141-2019 at [20] and 147-2018, 197-2018, 008-2019, 073-2019 at [132]. 145 SK OIPC Review Report 302-2016 at [59].

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