London Police snooped on personal health data 10,475 times in 4 months

The London Police Service used a provincial database containing the personal health records of people who tested positive for COVID-19 at one of the highest rates in Ontario, snooping on private medical information 10,475 times between April and July.

Law enforcement gained the unprecedented power to access people’s personal medical information when the database was shared by emergency order of the Ontario government in April, a period of heightened anxiety about the coronavirus pandemic when the caseload of new infections topped 400 a day.

The order gave police officers the ability to access the names, dates of birth and addresses of anyone in Ontario who tested positive for COVID-19.

The power was revoked by the Ontario government on July 22, but only after a group of legal and civil liberties organizations challenged the directive on the grounds that the police access to such data breached provincial privacy protections and was a violation of individuals’ constitutional rights to privacy and equality.

Public may not know COVID tests could be accessed by police

Two masked London police officers respond to a routine call at a community health clinic in the city’s Old East Village area. Court documents show officers accessed a database for COVID-positive individuals 10,475 times between April and July. (Colin Butler/CBC)

“It’s really unprecedented to share such a blanket swathe of personal health information with law enforcement,” said Abby Deshman, the director of the criminal justice program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), one of the legal groups that was a party to the lawsuit.

“We couldn’t really see the utility of providing police officers with this information.”

Deshman said one of the most serious questions raised in the controversy is whether people being screened for COVID-19 actually knew their health data would wind up in the hands of law enforcement.

“I think that when people went to get their COVID test, they were being told this wasn’t going to be shared with police. They weren’t asked for permission.”