68 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018
FEATURE
IF ALBERTA'S
experience is any indication, it's unlikely that
Canada's new data breach notification regulations, which affect the
federal private sector and came into force on November 1, will lan-
guish in obscurity.
In 2010, Alberta became the first (and still the only) province to
mandate breach notification from the private sector where "a real
risk of significant harm" to individuals existed. e legislation drew
11 notifications that year, a number that grew to 167 in 2017, up
from 70 in 2016.
Legislative requirements aside, there were at least 33 media-re-
ported breaches in Canada in 2017, according to breachlevelindex.
com. Most experts believe that the unreported breaches far exceed
those disclosed. e disclosures included the the of 1.9 million
records from Bell Canada; 1.6 million from Vancouver-based Tio
Networks, a PayPal subsidiary; up to 1.13 million from Nissan
Canada Finance; 1 million from Canoe.ca users; and 95,000 from
McDonalds Canada. e US saw 1,579 data breaches in 2017, up
INTO
THE BREACH
'AWARENESS
IS UP BUT
PREPAREDNESS
IS FLAT' AS
COMPANIES TRY
TO KEEP UP
WITH DATA PRIVACY
CONCERNS
BY JULIUS MELNITZER
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
