Getting your FAX straight

from a friend:

This last week I called on the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. I know that everyone is up in arms over credit card abuse and misuse and oddly enough credit card information is not legally protected in Ontario or federally here in Canada. What we do have are laws protecting health information.

So imagine my surprise when I received a fax from a medical testing centre containing the health identification, personal information and test results for a fellow resident here in Ontario. I immediately called the company who sent me the fax and pointed out the error. During the phone call I was asked to confirm information on the fax and to confirm the recipient phone number. I relayed the requested information to the Customer Service Rep and was asked to destroy the fax. Yep, somehow this a customer service issue. Why when I called I was not transferred to a Privacy officer, their representative or to at least a manager is beyond me. Heck, I’m not a customer, and I wasn’t looking to be serviced. I was just trying to help.

Based on the lackadaisical why they treated the company treated the situation I then contacted the Information Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario. This was another interesting exercise. On the www.ipc.on.ca site there are forms for people who lost information and people who think that their information has been lost. There was nothing I could find for people who ‘found’ information. So I sent an email hoping for the best

Hello,

I received at my office, by error, a FAX containing medical information for another person here in Ontario

What should I do?

Within the hour I received a phone call from an IPC representative. I relayed to them what happened and I was requested to provide them with a copy of the fax. I dropped off the evidence on Thursday.

Nothing causes one to think badly of someone quite like seeing the same screw-up happen twice. Yep you guessed it. I received the fax again. This time I skipped a step and called straight to the IPC. I left voice mail and sit here patiently awaiting instructions on my next step. I’m assuming that they will want this copy too.