Important Notices >> Privacy Notice

Summary of Campusdirect Privacy Impact Assessment

The Public Service-Wide E-Learning Pilot Project, called Campusdirect, is an e-learning project directed at federal public servants. The key objective of the pilot project is to develop an e-learning service offering government workers across the public service the opportunity to access:

• comprehensive information on learning opportunities within the public service; and
• a series of on-line learning products and other learning and self-assessment resources.

The pilot project will cover an approximate 3 year period to determine whether Campusdirect is viable for official implementation. Preliminary prototype deployments occurred in 2003 with full pilot deployment scheduled for the fall of 2004.

The Canadian Centre for Management Development (CCMD), now known as the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), has been delegated the overall project management responsibility of the project by Treasury Board. In carrying out its project responsibility, CSPS will be assisted by advice from a Steering Committee made up of representatives of the government's Network of Learning and Development Institutes (NLDI) and other primary stakeholders in the project.

This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)

• describes the Campusdirect project and its primary stakeholders as of January 31, 2004;
• analyses the project's data flows and the types of personal information projected to be collected, used and disclosed
• conducts a privacy analysis based on the principles in the Privacy Act; and
• proposes a management plan for the privacy risks identified though the analyses.

The types of personal information collected by Campusdirect operations primarily relate to course registration, payment and utilization. This information is not inherently of a highly sensitive nature. Even so, Campusdirect has attempted to structure its operations in a way that minimizes the use and disclosure of such information. Campusdirect has also developed a Privacy Code that it is applying to its operations. The PIA identifies certain improvements that can be made to the following areas of Campusdirect's privacy practices:

• username/password creation and client awareness of the need for confidentiality;
• minimal unnecessary transmission of sensitive information;
• privacy notices and consents;
• Personal Information Bank registration;
• information on Campusdirect's use of cookies;
• documentation of technical and privacy practices.

CSPS (as CCMD) prepared a Preliminary Privacy Impact Assessment Report on the Campusdirect project in 2003. Comments on that Report from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner have been addressed in the PIA. There have been no privacy complaints to date relating to the operations of Campusdirect.

As a pilot project, Campusdirect is in a state of continuous review and revision. The improvements noted in the PIA will be incorporated into Campusdirect operations as soon as possible. The PIA will also be revisited when designing further changes to Campusdirect operations.