Privacy Commish launching investigation into proof of vaccination requirements for federal workers

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner will be investigating if the standardized Canadian COVID-19 proof of vaccination violates privacy principles after getting complaints from public servants. “In recent days, our office has received a number of complaints related to the government’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement for federal public servants. We will therefore be investigating the application of privacy principles in this context,” Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien said in a Friday statement. Therrien said that the government consulted his office on the standardized “vaccine passports,” announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a Thursday release. The passport will take effect Oct. 30 and be issued to residents of Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Yukon, who are vaccinated and registered with their health authority. The proof of vaccination can be used with ArriveCAN, the mobile app and website for travellers to submit mandatory information when arriving in Canada from other countries. In June, Therrien told the House of Commons Ethics committee that, regarding the disclosure of personal health information, “it’s one thing to upload it in a government app such as ArriveCan, but we need to look at the security safeguards around that application, and that we have not yet done. And there needs to be rules in terms of disclosure of that information.” “Although the initiatives are distinct, the principles applicable to vaccine passports for travel and to the vaccination requirement for federal public servants are the same. It would therefore be inappropriate to offer conclusions until we have completed our investigations,” Therrien said in his Friday release. Therrien said in order to be justified, vaccine passports should be time limited, the privacy risks must be proportionate to the public health purposes, and the personal information collected should be limited and used only for public health purposes. “Vaccine passports may offer significant public health benefits but they remain exceptional measures. They should only be imposed after careful consideration of privacy and other human rights principles,” he noted. Therrien said that given the complaints about the public service vaccination requirement are now the subject of an ongoing investigation, no further details will be provided. In Aug. 2020 Therrien’s office concluded that the COVID-19 tracing app launched by the federal government conformed to federal privacy law but added that it highlighted a need to update Canada’s privacy laws to “deal with the digital environment to ensure appropriate regulation of new technologies.”

Privacy Commish launching investigation into proof of vaccination requirements for federal workers

Brief | October 22, 2021

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Privacy Commish launching investigation into proof of vaccination requirements for federal workers

Brief | October 22, 2021

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