Simcoe-Grey one of the ridings affected by privacy breach

Posted July 18, 2012

Elections Ontario has named Simcoe-Grey as one of the "20-25 electoral districts" to have suffered "a privacy breach in respect to your personal information."

The warning comes following the reported disappearance of two USB memory sticks that contained the "full name, gender, birth date, address, whether or not an elector voted in the last provincial election and any other personal information updates provided by voters to Elections Ontario during that time, as well as administrative codes used solely for election purposes." Reportedly 2.4 million people are affected.

"The information does not include how an individual voted," according to the official statement from Greg Essensa, Ontario's Chief Electoral Officer. "Elections Ontario does not have such information because the voting process guarantees the secrecy of the vote. Nor does the information include Social Insurance Numbers, Ontario Health card information, driver's licence information, telephone numbers, email addresses, credit card or banking information, or other information provided by voters during the 2011 election to confirm their identity or residence."

Elections Ontario recommends voters in the affected ridings monitor "their personal transaction statements from governments, financial institutions, businesses and any other institutions to detect any unusual activity. If any suspicious activities are detected, you are advised to contact those organizations immediately or if you need help finding out whom to call, please call Elections Ontario at 1-888-668-8683, TTY service at 1-888-292-2312 and we will refer you to the appropriate organizations."

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