The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario has released a letter written to the National Post in response to their article entitled “Privacy turns deadly.”

The National Post covered the recent report issued about the Virginia Tech Massacre. Their article points out the so-called fallacy of privacy regulations that “enabled” the massacre - the article states that the privacy laws prevented information about the mental health of Cho from coming to light, and that the same laws many times hindered his mental state from being examined more closely by the school and his own family.

IPC Ann Cavoukian issued a letter in response titled “Privacy is never deadly; inaction is at fault“, which neatly ties up the statements in her letter. She states that privacy is a base freedom, and the problems seen at Virginia Tech lie not with the privacy laws, but with individuals who fail to disclose information when it is required.

The laws allow for vital information to be disclosed in cases involving the health and safety of individuals. Perhaps it is a misunderstanding of the laws, in which case she points to a fact sheet on Ontario’s disclosure policies.

Clearly, educators and health care professionals have fears and misunderstandings about when to disclose private information, and this delay can be dangerous in situations when the information is required quickly.

Tags: virginia tech massacre, privacy, private information, privacy laws