The Ontario government appears to have made a major privacy gaffe, mailing out thousands of cheques this week that included wrong names and social insurance numbers.
Government officials said yesterday that as many as 27,000 cheques were sent out with incorrect confidential information.
Ontario Management Board chairman Gerry Phillips blames human error and a new computer system for the security laps.
The cheques were issued with the correct names of the recipients, but the cheque stub contained the name of someone else as well as a social insurance number and home address . . . [Read the full story in today's Globe and Mail]
Why are they printing SINs on cheques at all?
(Adam Shostack)
Good question. As Adam likely knows, Ontario's privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian is a pretty sharp tack. I hope she asks this question.