Ontario’s social services minister has apologized after the Mississauga disability support program office mistakenly emailed the private information of 45,000 people to 100 recipients.

“On December 20th, due to a clerical error, the Mississauga ODSP office unintentionally shared some individuals’ information over email,” said Lisa MacLeod in a statement.

“As soon as I was notified of this privacy breach, I took steps to ensure those impacted and the privacy commissioner were notified, and that processes and procedures were reviewed so that mistakes like this don’t happen again,” added MacLeod, minister of children, community and social services.

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“I sincerely apologize for this incident and want to ensure the public that we take this seriously.”

The December email was sent out to notify recipients of improvements to online information in the ODSP’s “MyBenefits portal.” The email came with an attachment — a spreadsheet with the name, email address and ODSP file number of 45,000 recipients.

One upset ODSP recipient, who did not wish to be identified publicly, said she received a letter last week notifying her of the privacy breach.

“It’s pretty scary because my information is out there and I don’t know who has it and what they might do with it,” she said.

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The ministry has been able to contact 75 of the 100 who received the private information, a ministry spokesperson said.

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“We have contacted all individuals to ask them to delete the email and confirm that it was deleted. We are also reviewing all of our internal processes to prevent such errors in the future,” said a ministry letter signed by director Patty Redmond that was sent to those affected.

“I want to assure you that we make every effort to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of all information within our custody, and we take this incident very seriously.”

No home addresses or financial details were disclosed, the letter also says.

The Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has been alerted to the breach.

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