An employee of the town of Hafford in Saskatchewan was found to be snooping in public records in order to use the information for personal use, according to a report from the province’s privacy commissioner.
In a ruling handed down on June 29, Saskatchewan Privacy Commissioner Ronald Kruzeniski called the snooping the worst kind of privacy breach.
“My office views employee snooping files as the most egregious type of privacy breaches,” Kruzeniski wrote in his ruling, which was first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
He said it was clear the employee was snooping for personal gain, by trying to negotiate a lower purchase price for a home.
The incident involved a Town of Hafford administrative employee who inappropriately accessed the property file records of three people for personal use. The information in the property files contained names, contact information, and information about their property such as the date of construction and purchase price.
- 9:13 pm: “And rarely do sellers get their top asking price. Even the [name removed] house came down [amount removed] grand from the original asking price on the posters.
- 10:23 pm: I also know you purchased it [the house] for a song. You would be making [amount removed] grand if I paid you [amount removed]. I realize you have done some renovations but even if you have put [amount removed] into it you would still be walking away with a decent profit.”
On January 25, 2023, the town confirmed in a letter to Mr. Kruzeniski’s office that the employee had pulled property records. And by March 2, 2023, the town had forwarded the results of its own internal investigation to his office.
The town said while the information pulled included home sale prices, building permits, lines of credit, and mortgages, there was no real risk that significant harm would occur “and therefore the breach did not meet the threshold to notify the individuals,” the town wrote.
However, Commissioner Kruzeniski ruled otherwise.
“The employee used the information to try and negotiate a lower purchase price,” wrote Mr. Kruzeniski. “This is incredibly intrusive.”
“All affected individuals deserve to know that this employee snooped in their home property files for their own personal gain,” wrote Mr. Kruzeniski. “Snooping is a harmful and intrusive activity that undermines the trust citizens have in a local authority’s ability to maintain the confidentiality of their information.”
In his June 29 report, Kruzinski ruled that the town’s investigation was adequate, and that the town took adequate steps to contain the privacy breach. However, he also found the town should have notified all three people affected, and not just the one who filed the initial complaint.
He also found “the Town has taken some adequate steps to prevent future employee snooping breaches of privacy but could take some additional steps.”
No one was fired in the Hafford case. The accused was punished with a disciplinary letter.
Hafford is a town of just over 400 people, about an hour northwest of Saskatoon.
