Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP)

Privacy impact assessment summary

Ontario Sex Offender Registry

The Ontario Sex Offender Registry (OSOR) is a database that provides 24-hour support for police services throughout the province. It is located at the OPP General Headquarters in Orillia. This service supports the objective of the Christopher's Law (Sex Offender Registry) of Ontario, 2000 which is to "provide information and investigative tools, including information about the whereabouts of sexual offenders that police forces within the province require in order to prevent and solve crimes of a sexual nature."

The OPP have been mandated by the Government of Ontario to establish, operate and maintain the OSOR on behalf of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Correctional Services Canada (CSC) is responsible for the disclosure of the offender's personal information through a process whereby CSC, on a daily basis, extracts the information to be provided from its Offender Management System and transfers it electronically to OSOR via a virtual private network (VPN) using an internet connection.

The purpose of this PIA was to examine the privacy implications of the agreement reached between CSC and the Government of Ontario regarding CSC providing personal information about sexual offenders to the OPP for inclusion in the OSOR.

This assessment demonstrates that the proposed information sharing method was developed in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

Privacy risks have been identified as part of this assessment and are being addressed.