N.W.T. gov't threatens legal action over website alleging privacy breach

A former manager with the Northwest Territories government says he's beenthreatened with legal action after he published a website alleging a breach of government privacy along with personal information about his former colleagues.

The website detailsallegations of problems with the government's PeopleSoft human-resources software.

Donn MacDougall, a former manager with the justice department's securities division, says information about territorial government employees, including wage information, was emailed to his personal account after he was no longer employed with the government. He posted this information to his website,infobreach.ca.

A Law Society of the Northwest Territories document from 2009, which is available online, lists MacDougall asmanager, securities andcorporate, legal registries, GNWT Justice.

He says he retained managerial access to his PeopleSoftaccount nine months after his employment ended in 2014, which gave him access to employee timesheets and leave balances, including sick leave. Screenshots of these details were also uploaded to his website.

As well, he says his work email address continued to be active and monitored for almost a year after he was no longer employed with the government.

He said he decided to make the website after learning more about privacy law around a year ago.

"It started to occur to me that what was done to me was offensive," he said.

"It really began to sink in to me that if this is something that's routinely done to departing employees, it's unbelievably offensive."

'This is a breach of privacy'

MacDougallsaid his allegations are outlined in a July 3, 2018 report from the N.W.T.'s information and privacy commissioner.

That report, which is public, says acomplainant could still see "sensitive" information about his former employees throughPeopleSoft a human resources system used by the territorial governmentlong after he was no longer working for the government.

CBC has not independently confirmedMacDougallis the complainant who made the allegations outlined in the report.

According to the report, the complainant had access to workers' vacation time, sick leave and overtime. It also says he was gettingemailsto his personal account containing other employees' contract and wage information.

"This is a breach of the privacy of those employees and should not be allowed or even possible," wroteElaine KeenanBengts, the privacy commissioner.

KeenanBengtsalso wrotethe complainant's government email stayed active after he left his job, and that it was being monitored by another employee, amounting to anotherpotential breach of privacy.

The commissioner made a number of recommendations, including that the government do a thorough review of its policies related to email accounts, and that personnel be assigned to processing outgoing employees.

KeenanBengtscould not be reached for comment for this story.

Sue Glowach, a spokesperson for the justice department, could not confirm before deadline whether the commissioner's recommendations havebeen implemented.

Cease and desist

In late December, MacDougall posted an image of what appears to be a cease and desist request from the territorial government on his website.

As I learned more and more about privacy law, it started to occur to me that what was done to me was offensive.- Donn MacDougall, former gov't employee

It saysif MacDougall does not shut down his website, the government will "pursue any and all legal remedies available to it."

"That's a little heavy handed," he said of the message. "When they take the step to say, 'Shut this website down that is critical of the Northwest Territories,' it looks a lot like censorship."

MacDougall emailed the CBC a copy of the notice, which is dated Dec. 20, 2018 and signed by Adam S. Vivian, a lawyer in the territory's justice department. MacDougallsaid he took down his allegations on Dec. 21.

The website has been live since the summer, but saw an upsurge in traffic last month after MacDougallsent postcards to N.W.T. politicians and the Union of Northern Workers, which represents government employees, directing them to the site.

Sensitive information still accessible

Glowach said in an emailthe government became aware of a website "disseminating unauthorized personal information about a small number" of employees in late December.

"The information contained on the site was personal information of [territorial government] employees and did not have consent to be released under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act."

She said that's why a government lawyer demanded the information be taken down.

"The information is no longer publicly visible," she said.

A version of the site containing all of the personal employee information originally postedis still publicly visible in Google's cache.

8-year tenure with gov't

MacDougall said he resigned from the Department of Justicein March 2014, after a tenure of eight years.

He said he left because the federal government was making changes to securities regulation that would have drastically changed the nature of his job. At the time of his resignation, MacDougall believed he would eventually be laid off.

The justice department said MacDougall'sformer position still exists.

Glowach saidaffected employees whothe government has been able to contact have been alerted about the website, as has the privacy commissioner.