Bowing to pressure from its own privacy commission, the Canadian government said Monday it would dismantle a gargantuan database that contains up to 2,000 bits of information about each Canadian citizen.
The database, called the Longitudinal Labor Force File (LLFF), contains data compiled from tax returns, child tax benefit payments, welfare files, federal job programs, job training and employment services, employment insurance files, and the nation's health insurance master file.
The LLFF came under intense scrutiny in the parliament and media beginning two weeks ago, when Canada's privacy commissioner, Bruce Phillips, released an annual report detailing pointed objections to the database's breadth and lack of privacy protection.
"Privacy commissioners have assured Canadians that there was no single federal government file, or profile about them," Phillips said two weeks ago. "We were wrong -- or not right enough for comfort."
On Monday, Canada's Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRDC) -- the ministry in charge of the database -- said it had scrapped the software used to link information from separate databases, returned data obtained from the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency, and instituted a series of policies to ensure that remaining data will be handled responsibly.
Data used in research, for instance, will be stripped of all personal identifiers. No data will be deleted however -- it will simply reside in separate databases rather than one master file.
"Given concerns about privacy issues in this era of advanced and constantly changing technology, I have chosen an approach that addresses future threats to privacy," Jane Stewart, Canada's minister of human resources development, said in a statement.
Stewart said the ministry would also establish an external advisory committee to monitor its use of data in future research and policy analysis. The committee will include the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
All of this was welcome news to the privacy commissioner, who said the ministry's actions addressed all of the concerns outlined in his annual report.
"I want to take particular note of the spirit in which our discussions have taken place, and the clear demonstration of your determination to improve the supervision and management of your information systems in ways that strengthen the privacy rights of Canadians," Phillips wrote in a letter to the HRDC.
