A new privacy policy is being adopted by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) that will require that most personal information be redacted from filings made public as part of enforcement proceedings.
The new policy, which takes effect on May 1, will apply to all disciplinary and settlement proceedings and aims to provide guidance on the use and disclosure of personal information in disciplinary proceedings. It sets limits on the use and disclosure of personal information that can be referred to in the course of hearings, or collected as part of the hearing record, in cases before IIROC hearing panels.
For instance, the policy will require the parties to an IIROC disciplinary proceeding to redact certain personal information from documents that are filed with a hearing panel, or the national hearing coordinator. The policy also requires that only a redacted version of the hearing record from a disciplinary proceeding will be provided in response to public requests.
The policy does not apply to documents exchanged between IIROC staff and respondents. And, clean copies of any documents should be available for viewing by the hearing panel, if requested. Also, the names of respondents don’t have to be redacted, and other personal information of a respondent may also be excluded from the policy, if a hearing panel deems that the information is relevant to the proceeding.
The policy also requires that, when making a decision, hearing panels will avoid referring to any personal information, as much as possible. Hearing panels will be required to balance the need to include relevant information against the privacy interests of the individuals involved, the policy notes.