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Some Mississauga residents have had their private information leaked in the wake of a privacy breach, the Region of Peel says.

"The Region of Peel considers the privacy of its clients to be very important and has policies and procedures in place to protect personal information. Despite this, a breach of personal information has occurred," Region of Peel Chair Nando Iannicca said in a statement.

Iannicca's letter indicates that on March 13, 2019, the region learned that limited personal information of approximately 13,000 individuals on a wait list for regional services was mistakenly posted on a mapping website used for creating and sharing digital maps.

The information contained names, addresses and family size and was labelled on the site as “Resident Waitlist.”

It was initially posted on June 8, 2018.

"Upon discovery, we immediately removed the map from the website," Iannicca wrote.

On May 1, 2019, the region learned that the data was accessed eight times between June 8 and June 13, 2018, by individuals who are not regional employees.

"We sincerely apologize for this information breach. I want to reassure Peel residents that this was an isolated incident. We are currently reviewing our internal practices for handling personal information and will implement changes to prevent incidents such as this one from happening again," Iannicca wrote.

Iannicca says the region has begun sending letters to affected individuals to inform them of the breach.

The Region has also reported this incident to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, which independently reviews the decisions and practices of government organizations concerning access and privacy.

Concerned residents can contact the Region of Peel at 905-791-7800.

For more information, click here.