Indigo Data Breach and Alberta Employers: Global News Interviews Karen Tereposky

Indigo Canada recently experienced a data breach that could affect both present and former employees. This cyber attack has led to questions surrounding employee privacy rights as well as the potential to sue former employers. What can employees do to pursue their rights in the event their information has been stolen or leaked?

Karen Tereposky, an employment lawyer in Alberta and Associate at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP spoke to Global News’ Craig Lord on the recent breach and legislation that protects employers.

Tereposky explains that privacy legislation tends to protect companies against violations that are in good faith. “Unless it’s in bad faith, then they’re protected from legal action. It’s hard to know where that standard is. It’s pretty subjective,” she says. “But in general, the privacy legislation in Alberta protects organizations from these types of incidents,” Tereposky states.

Tereposky reiterates that legislation could be introduced in order to deal with recent breaches. “If there were a push to reform legislation to address recent breaches, it would be to regulate and standardize compensation for affected parties, rather than open companies up to more legal action. In Canada, we tend to want to regulate things more than to just have litigation flowing.”