An employer collected a member of the public's social media posts, forwarded them to human resources without ever notifying the person, and internally shared them among staff. A privacy watchdog reviewed the complaint that followed and found the whole exercise was allowed.
The decision came on June 10, 2026, from Maria MacDonald, deputy commissioner at Prince Edward Island's Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. She declined to open an inquiry into a complaint that the Public Schools Branch had improperly collected a parent's social media activity, finding it plain and obvious the collection was authorized for human resources purposes.
The Public Schools Branch had retained counsel who wrote to a student's parents, referring to their persistent emails, an incident at a school involving hostility toward staff, and online attacks against the school and its employees. The letter demanded the parents stop making further false or defamatory comments, warned of possible remedies under the Trespass to Property Act, and limited the parents' communication to a single staff member in a leadership position.
One of the parents then filed an access to information request. Among the records returned were emails between two PSB employees, one of them in the human resources division, with screenshots of social media posts attached. The parent complained to the privacy office, arguing the board had collected their personal information without...
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