Prying Eyes: Risk Of Employee ‘Snooping' And How To Reduce It

Privacy is an area of increased focus for many companies, given the media attention and class action lawsuits that can arise from significant privacy breaches. Although many companies focus their attention on preventing data breaches from malicious outsiders, such as hackers, organizations also have a duty to protect the information that they process and store from unauthorized access, use and disclosures by their own employees.

Such obligations arise under the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA") and substantially similar provincial legislation in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec. Some health sector employers may also have obligations under provincial personal health information legislation across Canada.