Saskatchewan government breaches privacy before launching 'First Home Plan'

Before the province launched its First Home Planto the public, it wasapologizing for breaching the privacy of a number of potential applicants to the program.

The First Home Plan was announced in Saskatoonduring the election campaign by the premier. Hesaid it would be ready by May 1. It givespost-secondary grads the opportunityto borrow up to $10,000 of unused Graduate Retention Program tax credits to put toward the down payment on their first home.

• Saskatchewan Party pledges new program to help 1st time home buyers

It officially launched on Thursday, but that was preceded by anapology sent to prospective applicants.

The GraduateRetention Program -First Home Plan email account sent an application form to a number of people, on Wednesday.It failed to hide those addresses, allowing anyone with access to those emails to target potential home buyers.

On Thursday morning, the government account apologized to those affected via email,"we failed to mask the emails of all recipients when it was originally sent. We ask that you delete the original email from your inbox as well as your deleted items folder. Further, we ask that you do not forward or share the original email with anyone."

Government apology

The province on Friday sent CBC a statement regarding the privacy breach statingtheemails were not masked appropriately and the mistake won't happen again.

"We take the protection of privacy very seriously and have a strong privacy training program that all Ministry of Social Services employees are required to take," said Tim Gross executive director of housing development.

"In this training, we do include information on sending emails and steps we can take to minimize the likelihood of errors being made.Unfortunately, with this particular email, a mistake was made and for that, we apologize.When an error is made, our first priority is to minimize any risk to the private citizens involved," said Gross.

CBC received the email from a concerned applicant but did not contact anyone on the original emailout of privacy concerns.

Every applicant received an emailfrom a realtora short time lateroffering money if they purchased a home using their services.

The province said it was aware of this and contacted the appropriate parties.

"We are pleased that the organization contacted their member and the individual has agreed to delete the email, delete the contacts from their contact list and to not contact any impacted email recipients further," said Gross in a statement.

"We also self-disclosed our error to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and are working with them to address the error."

Privacy expert says breaches like this are common

A privacy expert saysanyone contacted by a realtor or business because of the breach can complain to the federal government because of its new anti-spam law,known as CASL.

"Under CASL,unsolicitedcommercial messages are not supposed to happen," said Sharon Polsky, president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada.

"If they just find your email address somewhere and start offering you wonderful deals or a sale, that is not allowed under the Canadian anti-spamlegislation."

Polsky said the breach is something that happens daily because of technology and a lack of understanding of best practices.

"It's not malicious, nobody meant for this to happen but it happens because it's technology and technology is only as good as the people using it," Polsky said.

First Home Plan now accepting applications

The province says it has already received 40 applications for the First Home Plan and that a number have been approved.