Privacy & Access To Information

Your Privacy

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 2015 (“ATIPPA, 2015”) sets out how your municipality must protect your personal information. This includes when they can collect information, how they can use the information they collect, and when the information can be disclosed.

How To Make A Request

Submitting an Access to Information Request

Submitting a Correction of Personal Information Request

What is Personal Information?

Personal information is recorded information about an individual. It includes information such as name, address, phone number, race, age, opinions and other information.

Collection of Personal Information

Municipalities may collect your personal information for a number of purposes. Some examples include:

• Information collected for tax purposes
• Contact information for participants in recreational programs
• Applications for jobs

Municipalities should only collect information that is necessary for a specific a purpose.

Example:  if you are applying for a building permit, it would be reasonable for the municipality to ask for information such as address, who owns the house, and whether the house is residential or commercial. However, they should not collect information that is not necessary or relevant, such as the work history or medical status of the person who owns the house.

Use of Personal Information

In general, information should only be used for the reason it was collected or a consistent purpose. This also means that your information should only be seen on an as-needed basis.

Example: If you apply for a job with a municipality, your resume should only be reviewed by those individuals involved in the hiring process.

Disclosure of Personal Information

ATIPPA, 2015 sets out the circumstances where your municipality may disclose your personal information. You can see section 68 for the full list of reasons why your information may be disclosed.

All municipalities are required to make certain information publicly available. This information includes the minutes of public meetings of council. These minutes may contain some information about individual residents, including the following:

• Names of individuals attending a public event, including the meeting;
• Names of individuals who have received an honour or award (unless the individual requests otherwise);
• Names and opinions of individuals who have made a presentation at a public meeting;
• Details of a contract with the town; or
• Names and other personal information if they are necessary and relevant to the discussion at hand.

Letters written to council may sometimes be tabled at public meetings. Any documents tabled at a public meeting become public documents. If you have any questions about whether a letter you write to council may be made public, contact the municipality to discuss this with them.

Privacy Breaches

A privacy breach occurs any time information is accessed, collected, used or disclosed in contravention of ATIPPA, 2015. Some examples of privacy breaches include:

• A town employee sends a fax containing your personal information to the wrong number; or
• A town councillor sends an email containing your personal information to the wrong email address

Your municipality must inform you about any privacy breaches of your personal information that may create a risk of significant harm to you. The municipality must also report these breaches to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Website Security

Use of “Cookies”

Some City applications use “cookies”. A cookie is a small data file that certain web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user id that the site uses to track the pages you have visited. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie is only a test file and cannot read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Cookies can track user traffic patterns, recognize your computer’s browser when you return, and could provide personalized content without requiring sign-in.

You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. However, they may be required to use some of the web applications on the City’s site.

Electronic Signatures and Payments

The City of Mount Pearl is committed to data security and the data quality of personally identifiable information that is either available from or collected by our web site and has taken reasonable precautions to protect such information from loss, misuse, or alteration. When a City application accepts credit cards or any other particularly sensitive information for any of its services, it encrypts all ordering information, such as your name and credit card number, in order to protect its confidentiality.

Complaints to Privacy Commissioner

You have the right to make a complaint to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner if you believe your personal information has been breached:

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
2 Canada Drive
P.O. Box 13004, Stn. A
St. John’s, NL  A1B 3V8
Phone: (709) 729-6309
Toll-Free: 1-877-729-6309
Fax: (709) 729-6500
www.oipc.nl.ca