Haldimand County issues statement on privacy matter

Haldimand County is issuing the following statement regarding a privacy matter involving information that was unintentionally made publicly accessible through part of its municipal GIS mapping system. 

Due to an administrative issue, limited property information from publicly available assessment roll records, including property addresses and names of property owners, was inadvertently made available online through a publicly accessible GIS portal information. Once the issue was identified, access to the information was immediately removed. 

The information did not contain passwords, financial account information, payment card information, Social Insurance Numbers, driver’s license numbers, or other sensitive authentication credentials. Haldimand would like to emphasize that this incident was not the result of a cyberattack or malicious data breach. 

Haldimand takes the protection of personal information seriously. In accordance with its obligations under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Haldimand has notified the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and is following all required procedures. If it is determined that any of your specific personal information was accessed without authorization, you will be notified directly. 

Haldimand County is reviewing its internal processes and controls and will take any additional steps necessary to ensure a similar situation does not occur in the future.  

If you have questions or concerns, please contact gistickets@haldimandcounty.ca.