19 million Canadians have had their data breached in eight months
The numbers come from 446 breaches that were reported to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC). Victims of these kinds of data breaches are vulnerable to identity theft, financial crime, even violence in some cases.
This will be especially significant during Canada’s election campaign, when parties look to gather as much information as they can to target voters with political messaging on social media. But political parties do not have to report data breaches to individuals or the OPC, as they are exempt from privacy laws that regulate the storage, collection and use of personal information.