Privacy breached for thousands after immigration software update

Information on thousands of applicants and clients of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) was released in a privacy breach earlier this year.

According to the Ministry of Immigration and Career Training, a system-wide software update in March led to the breach.

A client called the ministry and said they were able to see a report that had information for 8,049 people, including names of clients, SINP ID numbers, the category under which they applied to the program, the type of request, the status of their request, their status date, the date their request was submitted, and their work permit expiry date.

The ministry said it fixed the problem as soon as it was made aware of it and it has notified the clients affected as well as the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

In a separate situation, three ministry employees have been fired for accessing client records without proper authorization.

After the situation reported on recently in which an employee was alleged to have been accessing SINP client information as part of an immigration scheme, the ministry undertook an “enhanced audit process.”

Through the audit process, the ministry found three employees had accessed client records — and all three were fired.

The ministry said it doesn’t believe the three incidents were related to the earlier reported privacy breaches or the alleged immigration scheme.

According to the ministry, the Information and Privacy Commissioner has also been notified of those breaches and the Ministry of Justice has been involved.