City of Hamilton advising the public of potential privacy breach of customer information by Alectra Utilities
HAMILTON, ON - The City of Hamilton has an agreement with Alectra for the provision of water-related services including meter reading, billing, payment, collections, and customer care services. To support the delivery of these services, the City provides Alectra with information including property owner name, service addresses, billing addresses and tax assessment roll numbers.
The City has learned that there may have been a potential privacy breach whereby some of Alectra’s third party vendors may have access to this information without the appropriate approval. The data that has potentially been shared with a third party by Alectra includes the following: billing name, service address, billing address and tax assessment roll number. The City has no confirmation that a privacy breach has actually occurred or that the information has been accessed for any purposes other than to deliver City water services. That said, the public are being advised of this potential privacy breach and should continue to maintain their normal level of vigilance regarding their personal information.
City staff have been in contact with Alectra and requested that it take steps to fully review and disclose the details of the potential privacy breach and address the issue immediately.
City Council has directed staff to communicate these circumstances to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) and to share this information with the public including any affected customers.
Customers who are concerned they may be impacted can contact Alectra Utilities at (905) 317-4781 or at [email protected].