TORONTO – A discrepancy between a government statement and a credit bureau website is causing confusion for privacy breach victims who borrowed money from a student loan program.
The Department of Human Resources and Skills Development announced on Jan. 11 that it had lost a hard drive containing the personal information of 583,000 Canada Student Loans borrowers dated from 2000-2006. The hard drive also contained the personal contact information of 250 HRSDC employees.
In a Jan. 25 release, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada said it made arrangements with Equifax credit bureau to “provide affected Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP) clients with credit and identity protection services for a period of up to six years at no cost.”
The most basic product on the Equifax website is described as ‘credit monitoring and identity theft protection’ at $14.95 per month, which would cost the government more than $600 million. Many potential victims, as well as news media outlets, believed this to be the service the government was offering to provide.
However, the government has since clarified in an email to Global News that it has purchased a credit protection “known as a credit flag” which it says will “provide a quality and standard fraud protection for individuals affected” and not the basic product listed on the Equifax website. The government did not disclose the cost of the protection being offered.
As a result, many of those affected are confused and angered by the lack of clarity. The HRSDC Canada Twitter account has received angry responses to a Tweet that reads, “We are providing credit protection at no cost to individuals affected by this incident,” such as the below from a user listed as Brittenay Taylor:
One Regina lawyer is now planning to launch a class action lawsuit against the government, saying Canadians are entitled to compensation automatically since their privacy has been breached.
“The way the government did it is so egregious that we think there will be substantial damages for people,” said Tony Merchant. His goal is to win compensation for those affected, and to send a warning to the government that they can’t “breach people’s privacy in this way.”
Another lawyer in Newfoundland, also taking legal action, says he has been inundated with calls to join his lawsuit.
“I have a minimum right now of 17,000 contacts–people that have filled out their contact forms to join my class action,” said Bob Buckingham, in a Skype interview with Global National reporter Mike Drolet.
One of Buckingham’s clients, Markuss Pridgeon, works in the information protection industry. He said he went from upset to disgusted as more details emerged.
Pridgeon explained that credit flagging is free in every province, except in Ontario and Manitoba. While he commends the government on offering the flagging, he explained why the notion of monitoring was misleading.
“For them to throw in that they’re also doing credit monitoring-they’re not,” he said. “That’s something that we have to pay ourselves…and it’s $14.95 a month per credit bureau, and there’s two credit bureaus in Canada.”
In a news release, the department said that there is no evidence that the borrowers’ personal information has been accessed or used for fraudulent purposes. No banking or medical information was on the drive. The drive itself was used as backup storage for information.
The hard drive was first reported missing on November 5, 2012, identified during an investigation into another privacy incident at HRSDC. The incident was referred to the RCMP on January 7, 2013, according to a news release.
Those whose information was on the drive should contact the department call centre at 1-866-885-1866 for callers within North America. Those outside of North America can call 1-416-572-1113 and dial 0 to reverse long-distance charges.
Quebec, Nunavut and Northwest Territories borrowers’ information was not on the drive, as these provinces and territories have their own student loan programs.
With files from Leslie Young
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