Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) recently determined that an insurance broker in Winnipeg had committed a privacy breach and must pay a $1,000 fine.
The broker, Basil Galarnyk, was caught last fall accessing customer information for a total of 42 times without performing any transactions and with “no discernable reason” accessing said files.
Due to his violations, MPI suspended Galarnyk's authority to do MPI business for a week last October. Afterwards, MPI informed the Insurance Council of Manitoba (ICM), which then launched an investigation of its own.
The ICM’s investigation found that of the 42 occasions that Galarnyk accessed client files, he admitted that in 11 instances he did it for purposes such as attempting to find a lost insurance validation sticker or dealing with questions revolving a bill of sale.
The other 31 cases of unwarranted access were done for “no discernable reason,” the ICM concluded. The investigation noted that customer information was obtained during those occasions without authorization and without recording customer comments.
In April 2016, the ICM ruled that Galarnyk’s actions were violations of privacy laws, which include the
Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
"Manitoba Public Insurance's customer information is to be accessed by agency staff only in order to respond to a customer inquiry or process a transaction for the customer," Autopac agency operating standards state. "Autopac agents are not to access any customer's Autopac online file under any other circumstance, such as to determine if a customer has renewed their policy."
Galarnyk defended his actions, saying that he was "simply answering customer questions" when he was accessing the files, but he failed to make entries indicating such.
"Clients phone us all the time and ask us questions, right?" he said. "You go into the file and look at it."
On top of the fine, Galarnyk also has to pay $225 for investigations costs and must complete a privacy training course,
CBC News reported.
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