$93M class-action lawsuit filed against City of Calgary for privacy breach

The City of Calgary is being sued for $92.9 million, accused of breaching the privacy rights of more than 3,700 of its employees.

The class action lawsuit was filed Tuesday, alleging a privacy breach in June2016. The court document claimsa city staffer sent an email to an employee of another Alberta municipality, sharing thepersonal and confidential information of 3,716 municipal employees.

• City apologizes for privacy breach of WCB files

The personal information was contained inWorkers' Compensation Board claim details andincluded medical records, Social Insurance Numbers, addresses, dates of birth, Alberta Health Care numbersandincome details.

The statement of claim accuses the city of "acting with the most obvious neglect."

The lawsuit claims the thousands of city employees are now at a higher risk of identity theft, financial fraud, financial losses and psychological injury, including humiliation.

"We don't know whether the information was misused," said lawyer PatrickHiggerty, who represents the plaintiffs. "That creates a lot of anxiety."

City said infodeleted

In August 2016, the city publicly apologized for what it called "human error" in releasing theWCB claim information on June 14 and 15, 2016.

The information had been collected between 2012 and 2016.

At the time, the city said an investigation revealed the disclosure happened when a city employee sought technical assistance from a contact working at another municipality.

The information was sent to the recipient's work and personal email addresses.

Officialsbelieve the breachwas not malicious in nature, the city's acting chief security officer, DonaldVon Hollen, said at the time.

The information was not shared further and was deleted.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and a statement of defence has not yet been filed.