CALGARY- An investigation has been ordered, following a major privacy breach at a Calgary school.
Parent Jaret Kneller said he was shocked when he opened an e-mail sent by the new principal at George P. Vanier School in the northeast community of Winston Heights-Mountview. Instead of the introductory letter that was supposed to be attached, it contained 52 pages of confidential student records.
Information included e-mails, home phone numbers, names and student ID numbers.
“Needless to say we were shocked to find this information in the e-mail, as its public release contravenes privacy guidelines,” he wrote in an e-mail to Global News. “The release of this information is a very serious breach.”
The Calgary Board of Education admits there was a privacy breach, and released the following statement on Tuesday evening:
At the Calgary Board of Education, we strive to create a safe and caring learning environment every day. This commitment extends beyond classrooms to include our responsibility to ensure that personal information of students is kept confidential.
The CBE had an apparent breach of privacy involving an inadvertent electronic transmission of student data to parents. This data included student names, email addresses, phone numbers, Alberta Education identification numbers, grade placement, homeroom teacher, and primary language spoken at home.
The Alberta privacy commissioner has been notified and an investigation is underway. A letter has been sent home to parents to alert them of the breach and to apologize for it.
The CBE takes these issues very seriously and apologizes to all affected by this breach. Measures are being investigated to help ensure this mistake does not happen again.
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