The Government of Yukon protects the privacy of citizens by following the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy (ATIPP) Act. This means we must protect the information we collect, use and disclose and we must tell you what happens to your information once you share it with us.
You can find out more about our obligations are in our:
How the government collects personal information
When we collect your personal information we have to inform you of:
- our legal authority to collect the information; and
- the reason we are collecting it.
We limit the amount of personal information we collect to only what is necessary to deliver a program or service.
Learn more about how Government of Yukon collects information.
How government uses personal information
When we collect your personal information, we use it to deliver, evaluate or expand a government program or service. We will only use it to meet the need identified when we collected it.
The government has a variety of safeguards in place to make sure your information is only accessed by our staff when they need it to do their jobs.
We store data in secure facilities and protect the information behind firewalls.
Find out how government uses personal information
Disclosing and sharing personal information
The government can't share your personal information between program areas without your permission and knowledge. For example, an office in the Department of Environment cannot share information with an office at the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.
Under the ATIPP Act the government can disclose personal information in a few specific instances. These include:
- information disclosed during the course of a criminal investigation; and
- information you disclose when you apply for funding to one program. This information can be disclosed to a different funding body within government so you can be given that funding (eg.: cheques or other payments).
Learn more about personal information disclosure.
Assessing and reducing privacy risks
When the government creates or redesigns a program, service or IT system, we have to assess if the change will create risks to privacy before we move forward with the change. We do this by conducting a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA).
- Learn more about the government's Privacy Impact Assessments.
- Download our Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) tool and template
Training employees to manage privacy
All government employees who collect, use, or disclose people's personal information as part of their job must complete privacy training. This training teaches employees how to manage citizens' personal information to reduce the risk that their privacy could be compromised.
- Download our Employee privacy training operational policy.
Privacy breaches
If there's a privacy breach, the government has specific measures in place to mitigate the impact of the breach on those whose personal information has been compromised.
We train our employees so they know what to do if there is a privacy breach.
Personal information mapping
We use personal information mapping so we can account for all of the personal information the government holds. It's the way the government and citizens can understand what personal information is held and identify who has access to it, who the information is routinely disclosed to and where it is held.
For questions about how the government protects citizens privacy email atipp@gov.yk.ca, or phone 867-393-7048 or toll free in Yukon 1-800-661-0408, extension 7048.