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As the provincial government investigates four cases of illegal access to personal information from B.C.’s PharmaNet prescription database, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association is asking why the province hasn’t told all users about a simple fix to lock down their data.

“You go into your pharmacy and say you want to lock down your records with a key word,” BCCLA policy director Micheal Vonn said Thursday. “With a key word, you have to give it to them every time you fill a prescription, but you know that only the people who are attending to your health care have access to your records.”

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The PharmaNet system links all B.C. pharmacies to a central set of data systems and logs every prescription dispensed in the province.

All B.C. pharmacists and many doctors have access to all data in the PharmaNet system that isn’t protected by a patient’s personal keyword, Vonn said.

According to a B.C. Ministry of Health statement made this week, between the fall of 2016 and February 2017, the government became aware of and launched an investigation into four incidents of unusual activity where unknown individuals accessed personal information contained in the PharmaNet system. The system has a basic profile for each individual that includes name, address, date of birth, personal health number and gender. The past 14 months of an individual’s medication history is also stored in PharmaNet.