Coordination of Access to Information Requests (CAIR) and Personal Information

The new CAIR system became operational on June 1, 2001.  Since that time, the number of requests registered in CAIR has doubled from the number registered the previous year.  Your cooperation and efforts in making the CAIR system a success are greatly appreciated.  

It has been brought to our attention that personal information is being entered in the CAIR system.  You are reminded that care should be taken to ensure that personal identifiers are not inadvertently included.  Identifiers are not necessarily names of individuals, but may also include addresses or details of relationships to individuals.  Therefore, personnel responsible for CAIR entries within your institution should be familiar with the Privacy Act and what constitutes personal information. 

Entries in the CAIR system are the responsibility of ATIP offices.  In order to ensure that the requirements of the Privacy Act are respected, you are requested to review your existing entries in the CAIR system and remove all personal information.  Institutions that upload into CAIR through ATIPflow are reminded that the request full text box is used to link the two systems and not the request summary box.

Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated.  Should you have any questions regarding CAIR, please contact your Treasury Board Secretariat portfolio officer.

Anne Brennan

Director
Information and Security Policy Division
Government Operations Sector