Who hasn't mistakenly sent an email to the wrong person at least once? I mean, errors happen and those auto-fill features in our email accounts are sometimes risky propositions.
But in one story this week, it became known that an individual employed at a fertility clinic subsidy program mistakenly sent an email to hundreds of patients without blind copying them. All of a sudden, three years worth of patient information was sent to the wrong people. The email revealed to patients who each other were by exposing their names and email addresses to one another.
In 2023, I would have thought people administering large email lists would know better. This type of error is as bad as the misdirected fax containing health information from 20 years ago.
With all the talk about privacy awareness and privacy training, it's clear that more work needs to be done. Guess we will have to continue to beat that drum!
Privacy awareness training has always been important and our regulators have, for a long time, communicated their expectations that people dealing with personal information be properly trained. This is as important today as it was when the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act was rolled out at the turn of century — my goodness I feel old!
With advances in computing technology, and in particular with artificial intelligence systems now having access to more and more personal information, we need to ensure those working with these technologies have privacy awareness.
This is why I'm in total support of the IAPP's efforts to educate people on artificial intelligence governance. They are launching training materials with plans for a certification in the near future. They also have a handy weekly newsletter that keeps privacy pros up to speed on what is happening in the AI world. Lastly, they plan on having a conference in Boston later in the fall where AI governance will be the focus of the discussions.
I'm off to the IAPP headquarters next week for some long overdue facetime with the amazing staff that keep the association ticking and growing. If you have anything you want me to share with them, let me know in the comments below.
Have a great weekend.