Personal information is data about an “identifiable individual”. It is information that on its own or combined with other pieces of data, can identify you as an individual.

The definition of personal information differs somewhat under PIPEDA or the Privacy Act but generally, it can mean information about your:

• race, national or ethnic origin,
• religion,
• age, marital status,
• medical, education or employment history,
• financial information,
• DNA,
• identifying numbers such as your social insurance number, or driver’s licence,
• views or opinions about you as an employee.

What is generally not considered personal information can include:

• Information that is not about an individual, because the connection with a person is too weak or far-removed (for example, a postal code on its own which covers a wide area with many homes)
• Information about an organization such as a business.
• Information that has been rendered anonymous, as long as it is not possible to link that data back to an identifiable person
• Certain information about public servants such as their name, position and title
• A person’s business contact information that an organization collects, uses or discloses for the sole purpose of communicating with that person in relation to their employment, business or profession.
• Government information. Occasionally people contact us for access to government information. This is different from personal information.