Backgrounder
Findings of a 2007 poll commissioned by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Ottawa, October 17, 2007 – The Office of the Privacy Commissioner
commissioned EKOS Research Associates to survey Canadians on a
number of privacy issues.
Some of the key findings of the poll, conducted in March, are:
- Privacy continues to mean very different things to Canadians,
who increasingly think first of the protection of their personal
information.
- It is difficult to make broad-based assumptions for
all Canadians about particular uses of personal information.
What is acceptable to one Canadian may be entirely unacceptable
to another.
- Seven in ten Canadians feel they have less protection
of their personal information than they did ten years ago.
- Canadians
continue to agree (60%) that health information is one of the
most important types of personal information that needs protection
through privacy laws.
- Only a small proportion of Canadians believe the
government (17%) and businesses (13%) take protecting personal
information very seriously.
- 77% of Canadians believe that government
agencies and affected individuals should be notified if sensitive
personal information is compromised as a result of a breach.
66% believe government agencies and affected individuals should
be notified if non-sensitive information is compromised.
- Four in five Canadians place
great importance on having strong privacy laws. Despite this,
more than half report they are not aware of any privacy laws
currently in place.
- Nevertheless, 69% believe that they are doing
a very good or good job at protecting their own personal information.
- While
a large number of Canadians (65%) have memorized their Social
Insurance Number, 46% continue to carry their SIN card with them.
- Half
of Canadians (48%) are unaware that warranty cards are not necessary
to ensure a legal warranty. A significant proportion of Canadians
(40%) are not aware that companies use warranty cards to collect
personal information for marketing purposes.
- 72% of Canadians believe unsolicited
junk email (spam) is a significant problem.
The EKOS poll involved a 15-minute telephone survey with a random sample
of 2,001 Canadians from March 13th to March 26th 2007. The poll
is considered accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points,
19 times out of 20.
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