News release

Province Accepts Recommendations and Implements Action Plan Related to Privacy Breach

Internal Services (June 2014 - May 2019)

NOTE TO EDITORS: Internal Services Minister Patricia Arab and Deputy Minister Jeff Conrad will be available to speak with media at about 2 p.m. or, if later, immediately following the Auditor General and Privacy Review Officer’s news conference today, Jan. 15, in the Media Room, 1700 Granville St., Halifax.


The Department of Internal Services has accepted all recommendations outlined in reports issued today, Jan. 15, by the auditor general and the privacy review officer. These reports follow investigations into the privacy breach of the Freedom of Information portal in April 2018.

“From day one, our top concern has been containing the information, learning from this incident and applying those learnings to all our processes,” said Minister of Internal Services Patricia Arab. “I appreciate the work that went into these reports. All of the information and recommendations provided will help strengthen our work going forward and better protect the information of Nova Scotians.”

An action plan has been developed by the department to implement the recommendations, all of which are already in progress. To view the action plan, visit https://beta.novascotia.ca/documents/privacy-breach-action-plan.

The department is also completing a post incident report into the matter. The action plan will be updated to reflect actions coming from this report.