Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) - Paperless Hearing Initiative

Type of personal information involved and context

Social Insurance Number, medical, financial or other sensitive personal information or the context surrounding the personal information is sensitive; personal information of minors or of legally incompetent individuals or involving a representative acting on behalf of the individual.

Risk Scale

3

Program or activity partners and private sector involvement

With another government institution

Risk Scale

2

Duration of the program or activity

Long-term activity

Risk Scale

3

Program population

Risk Scale

3

Technology and privacy

Does the new or substantially modified program or activity involve implementation of a new electronic system or the use of a new application or software, including collaborative software (or groupware), to support the program or activity in terms of the creation, collection or handling of personal information?

Does the new or substantially modified program or activity require any modifications to information technology (IT) legacy systems?

No

Specific technological issues and privacy

• Does the new or substantially modified program or activity involve implementation of new technologies or one or more of the following activities:
  • enhanced identification methods;
  • surveillance; or
  • automated personal information analysis personal information matching and knowledge discovery techniques?

Personal information transmission

Risk Scale

3

Impact on Individuals or Employees in the Event of a Privacy Breach

In the event of any privacy breach, there would be some impact on the individual or employee. That impact is reduced by: 

• Reducing the risk of breaches within the institution.
• Discovering breaches quickly.
• Training staff on how to respond to breaches.

Ensuring that the information, in the event of a breach, has a narrow distribution.

Risk Scale

2

(high impact / low probability)

Institutional Impact in the Event of a Privacy Breach

Risk Scale

2

(high impact / low probability)

Applicants’/ Appellants’ full name (first name, middle name(s), last name)

To identify applicants/appellants

Collected from an automated batch process managed by the RDB; collected from VAC (HO file, CSDN)

As prescribed by Library and Archives Canada and in accordance with the minimum and maximum retention periods established by the Board. Information no longer required may be destroyed or rendered anonymous.

Identification numbers (e.g. Head Office file number, Service number, SIN)

As prescribed by Library and Archives Canada and in accordance with the minimum and maximum retention periods established by the Board. Information no longer required may be destroyed or rendered anonymous.

To identify applicants/ appellants

Collected from an automated batch process managed by the RDB; collected from VAC (HO file, CSDN)

As prescribed by Library and Archives Canada and in accordance with the minimum and maximum retention periods established by the Board. Information no longer required may be destroyed or rendered anonymous.

As prescribed by Library and Archives Canada and in accordance with the minimum and maximum retention periods established by the Board. Information no longer required may be destroyed or rendered anonymous.

As prescribed by Library and Archives Canada and in accordance with the minimum and maximum retention periods established by the Board. Information no longer required may be destroyed or rendered anonymous.

Direct collection, notification and consent, as appropriate (section 5 of the Privacy Act)

Subsection 5(1) of the Privacy Act states that where possible, a government institution must collect personal information that is intended for administrative purposes directly from the individual to whom it relates except where the individual authorizes otherwise or as provided for by law.

Subsection 5(2) of the Privacy Act requires that a government institution inform individuals from whom it intends to collect personal information the purposes for which that information is to be collected.

In accordance with paragraph 5(2)(a) of the VRAB Regulations, the Board notifies applicants/appellants of its receipt of the material from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ records upon receipt of an application for review, appeal, or reconsideration.

In addition to the Board collecting records from the Department (subsection 5(1) of the VRAB Regulations), an applicant/his representative may submit information at the time of the hearing to support the claim for disability benefits. Applicants are notified that review hearings are recorded.

When applicants do not attend their review hearings in person, they complete and sign a Consent and Waiver for Teleconference or in Absentia Hearing form – VRAB form 46 – in advance of the hearing. This form authorizes the Board to proceed with the hearing in their absence or by way of teleconference.

In the rare event that a case is adjourned to obtain an independent medical opinion, the applicant/appellant will sign an Authority to Release Personal Information form – VRAB form 40 – authorizing the Board to release his personal information to the doctor.

Once again, the paperless hearing initiative is not changing the way in which the Board collects applicants’/appellants’ personal information, notifies them of such collection, or obtains their consent in support of the review/appeal program.
 

Retention and Disposal (section 6 of the Privacy Act)

Subsection 6(1) of the Privacy Act prescribes that personal information used by a government institution for an administrative purpose be retained by the government institution for such a period so as to allow the individual to whom it belongs a reasonable opportunity to obtain access to that information.

Subsection 6(3) of the Privacy Act requires that the ultimate disposal of personal information under the control of a government institution be performed securely, and in accordance with the record disposition authorities of Library and Archives Canada.

The records that will be used in the paperless hearing initiative will be copies of records or transitory documents, all of which will be disposed of when the decision is finalized. This initiative is merely a way for VRAB staff to share copies of documents with members (and vice versa) without the need for paper.

The official SOC as well as the final decision document will continue to be retained on the clients’ electronic files (i.e. CSDN and VSA).

Members’ notes and CARs are considered transitory documents that form part of the deliberative process (paragraph 22(1)(b) of the Privacy Act). They are subject to deliberative privilege and will continue to be destroyed upon the finalization of the decision.

Sessions lists and the Reasons for Awarding are considered transitory information as they are only required for a limited period of time in order to complete a routine action. The list will be shared with the panel members and deleted at the end of the process. Data contained in the Reasons for Awarding will be entered into CSDN for tracking and statistical purposes.

Exact processes and procedures, including roles and responsibilities, will need to be developed and documented for affected units as staff will become responsible for deleting from the shared folder as well as the emails that will have been exchanged with members in the hearing process on a regular basis.

Procedures will need to be shared with members to instruct them on the deletion of the transitory documents from their tablets and of the emails in Outlook. Some members have been provided with printers for their home offices. As the onus will be on the members to delete these transitory records and safely dispose of paper copies, a monitoring process should be developed and put into practice.

Accuracy (section 6(2) of the Privacy Act)

Subsection 6(2) of the Privacy Act requires that government institutions take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information that is to be used for administrative purposes remain as accurate, up-to-date, and complete as possible.

VRAB follows the TBS Directive on Personal Information Requests and Correction of Personal Information and subsection 11(2) of the Privacy Regulations.

VRAB members will refer to the sessions list to determine which clients’ cases will be heard during a particular week and retrieve the required documents for the preparation of cases. Amendments will continue to be made as needed to any of the documents being shared with the members to ensure the members have the most accurate documentation available to them. VRAB staff and members will be able to tell the date a document was uploaded to the VSA.

Procedures will need to be developed and documented to ensure that members and affected staff are notified when amendments are made to documents that will already have been uploaded to the VSA to ensure that members and staff are working from the most accurate, up-to-date, and complete versions.

Use (section 7 of the Privacy Act)

Section 7 of the Privacy Act states that personal information under the control of a government institution shall not be used for purposes other than that for which it was collected (or for a use consistent with that purpose), except with the individual’s consent (or as provided for by law). The VRAB Act (section 15) and Regulations (subsection 5(1)) authorize the Board to collect personal information that relates directly to the review and appeal process for disability pensions and awards.

Applicants’/appellants’ personal information that is being shared between VRAB staff and members as part of the paperless hearing initiative will be used to hear, determine, and process all applications for review, appeal, and reconsideration which is the purpose the information was obtained or compiled.

A reasonable person would consider the use of the information appropriate.

Disclosure (section 8 of the Privacy Act)

Subsection 8(1) of the Privacy Act states that information under the control of a government institution shall not, without the consent of the individual to whom it relates, be disclosed by the institution, except as provided for in subsection 8(2).

Personal information, as part of the paperless hearing initiative, will be disclosed to Board staff and members who will be working on the cases before the Board. By way of making an application to the Board for a review, appeal, or a reconsideration, an applicant/appellant is consenting to the Board disclosing relevant personal information to those whose duties require them to know the information. This would fall under paragraph 8(2)(a) of the Privacy Act (for the purpose for which the information was obtained or compiled).

Personal information is disclosed to applicants’/appellants’ representatives to whom they have consented its release. In the rare event that a case is adjourned to obtain an independent medical opinion, personal information is also disclosed to the doctor to whom the applicant has consented its release.

Personal information will continue to be disclosed to the individuals listed above and will not be impacted by this initiative.

Safeguards

Technical safeguards:
Only VRAB employees have access to the VRAB server. The shared folder will be housed on the VRAB server and will have limited access rights. The tablets that will be used by members to retrieve the SOCs will be password protected and all information stored on them will be fully encrypted. This is in accordance with the TBS Information Technology Policy Implementation Notice (ITPIN) Secure use of portable data storage devices within the Government of Canada.

Emails generated as part of the paperless hearing initiative will all be sent from and received through the Board’s government-issued Outlook email accounts within VRAB’s secure network. However, there is an increase risk with global addresses within Outlook that an email could be sent to the wrong recipient causing a privacy breach. Outlook resources should be used for all two way communications.
Physical safeguards:
All tablets are stored in locked carrying cases when the members are travelling. This is in accordance with the TBS Operational Security Standard on Physical Security and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) guides G1-001 - Security Equipment Guide and G1-009 - Transport and Transmittal of Protected and Classified Information.

Therefore, the Board opted not to conduct a Threat Risk Assessment for the paperless hearing initiative. However, the Board should ensure that members are still using locked briefcases at all times.
Administrative safeguards:
Paper documentation is and will be used in some cases for submitting evidence. In the current paper process the documentation is contained within highly visible, coloured card stock docket covers.

As docket covers will no longer be needed in the paperless process, the administrative change away from using docket covers could cause an increased risk of misplacing documents which could result in privacy breaches.

Technology and privacy issues

There will be no changes to the business requirements that have an impact on the system, software or program application.

The current IT legacy systems and services that will be retained are compliant with privacy requirements. PIAs have been conducted for both the CSDN and the VSA. All new staff and members attend a training session given by the Board’s ATIP unit in which they are provided with guidance on the appropriate use and protection of personal information, steps to take if a privacy breach occurs, and their obligations under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.

Additionally, the Board promotes the importance of protecting personal information annually during Privacy Month. Memos, posters, and email tips foster a privacy culture at the Board and ensure continual awareness of employees’ roles and responsibilities when handling, protecting, and disposing of information.