May I ask if anyone knows of the “right” of federal or provincial health department/ community/social services, in any Canadian federal, provincial or territorial jurisdiction to ask for chip information to be disclosed for any device attached to the body of a person in receipt of disability support funding to determine eligibility for that person’s entitlement to additional funding of replacement consumables for personal health device?
Is this a fundamental violation of human rights, dignity of the person and violation of privacy to the extreme? Especially if that data is being sold to highest bidder!?
Sorry for run on of first sentence…
Federally, I believe there is privacy protection wording for digital devices under parts of the Privacy Act (protection from governments) and PIPEDA (protection from private sector). You’d have to download the legislation and search for your particular situation.
This is community services asking company to share my friends chip data from a wearable device to determine her eligibility for coverage of the consumable components.
I have to say I am shocked at the requirement and would like to know if it is legal
It can be set up in a way that’s legal (eg consent) or a way that’s illegal (eg imposing a requirement that’s not required by the authorizing legislation). Whether it OUGHT to be set up that way is a different question.
Are they asking for chip capability information to determine if it qualifies as a health product that that is covered by extended benefits? If so that seems 100% reasonable.
Or, are they asking for the actual personal health data the device has collected from your friend’s usage so far to determine if they are eligible for some type social assistanc…that seems like an over reach.
My friend was “required” to send the chip containing their personal data to the company for extraction of that personal data.
From my understanding, the company is then going to submit the personal data to the government agency(ies) “for analysis” to determine my friend’s eligibility for costs associated with consumables of wearable device.
As far as consent goes, my friend is quite upset about what, in my opinion, could be considered “forced” consent.
Without knowing more details about the device, which private company, and which government agencies it sounds like your friend been caught up in an elaborate phishing scam. I asked a few of my social worker friends and none of them have ever heard of anything like this.
Thank you for commenting. I am worried about over sharing of information that could lead to my friend being identified, so I purposely excluded the level of detail indicated.
The requester is a provincial government department and has been verified.
The company who sells/provides wearable has been verified and has been providing replacement consumables for several years.
It does seem bizarre that my friend is expected to provide this much private medical data to obtain coverage for the consumables.
Would anyone have advice on who I contact to report this over reach for information? The privacy commissionaire or the ombudsman’s office?
It sounds like the device is pricey, and I’m sure they have a mandate to make sure the device is providing an actual medical benefit to continue coverage. If your friend’s medical data is required to show the device is providing a medical benefit then it seems very reasonable for them to ask for that data to continue to have the device’s cost covered.
One example I know of (in USA) is continuous blood glucose monitors as they cost about $100 a week. Some private medical benefits will only cover the ongoing expense of a CGM (specifically for type 2 diabetics) if it can be demonstrated that the device is helping the insured to reverse their diabetes (or at least halt it’s progression).
Thank you for your response. That seems plausible.
If that is the case for would be great if the government agency clearly stated the mandate and specific devices requiring this level of personal medical data AND what they are doing with it, i.e. NOT selling it.
This is a commonly used device that many people use to help with daily functioning, no really exorbitant consumables…
