Government Medical Records Find Their Way to the Auctions House

A man who purchased 41 tapes from the B.C. government action assuming that they were empty found to his surprise that it had 77,000 personal medical files. The tapes had information about the patient’s name, address, HIV status, substance abuse history and mental illness. He had the intention of selling them and handed them over to the Vancouver Sun.

Minister of Labor Mike de Jong said after hearing to this incident said that an investigation is underway to unravel the mystery behind how the tapes containing sensitive records ended up on the auction block. The man was aware of its content only then. The minister told the Canadian Press that such act was unacceptable from the government side and showed their lack of responsibility. The Vancouver Sun's technology specialist said that there were no attempts made to delete the text present in the tapes.