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Quebec to probe computer files theft BY BOB MCKENZIE QUEBEC—The Quebec government has ordered a police investigation into alleged black market trafficking in personal information filched from government computer files. The investigation follows testimony by a senior official of Quebec’s Access to Information Commission that civil servants are illegally peddling information on individual medical files, driving records, income tax statements and other confidential data. "If these allegations are founded, it is extremely grave," Citizens' Relations Minister André Boisclair told reporters. |
Boisclair said the Sûreté du Quebec, the provincial police force, has been ordered to contact the Information Commission as the first step in an inquiry process. ILLEGAL ACTIVITY Clarence White, the commission's director of analysis and information, indicated there might be illegal activity when he testified before the Quebec National Assembly's commission on culture Tuesday.The culture commission is studying the possibility of creating a multi-purpose Quebec identity card. White said the Access to Information Commission, a Quebec government body set up in 1982, has evidence of an organized black market in confidential data, including a price list. Income tax information can be bought illegally at a research fee of $60 an hour, while individual police dossiers sell for $25 to $50 apiece, Hydro-Québec accounts for $40, auto insurance records for $40 and a person's health insurance file for up to $120, White said. |
Quebecers are theoretically protected from such practices by the Access to Information Law, the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1983 and the provincial income tax act. INSUFFICIENT FINES But the fines for offenders— $200 to $1000 for a first offense under the Access to Information Act and $500 to $2,500 for repeaters—have been criticized as insufficient to deter credit agencies, security firms and other purveyors of private information. White said personal information is often requested for "obscure reasons"—for example, by libraries demanding social insurance numbers. In other cases, personal remarks on individuals find their way into company computer networks, he charged. Toronto Star March 6, 1997
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