No Harm, No Fowl: Chicken Farm Inappropriate Choice For Data Disposal

Here's a piece of simple, practical advice: when you're choosing a contractor to dispose of your organization's personal information, go with a credentialed expert, and not a bunch of chickens.

That's a lesson that Spruce Manor Special Care Home in Saskatchewan had to learn the hard way (as surprising as that might sound). As a trustee with custody of personal health information, Spruce Manor was required under section 17(2) of the Saskatchewan Health Information Protection Act to dispose of its patient records in a way that protected patient privacy. So, when Spruce Manor chose a chicken farm for the job, it found itself the subject of an investigation by the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. In what is probably one of the least surprising findings ever, the commissioner wrote in his final report that "I recommend that Spruce Manor [...] no longer use [a] chicken farm to destroy records", and then for good measure added "I find using a chicken farm