More privacy breaches affect military sexual misconduct class action members

The company overseeing the federal government's settlement deal with military members who experienced sexual misconduct in uniform has admitted to more privacy breaches.

The company overseeing the federal government’s $900-million settlement deal with military members who experienced sexual misconduct in uniform has admitted to more privacy breaches.

Epiq Class Action Services Canada confirmed the additional errors last week after a second veteran came forward to The Canadian Press to report having received an email containing the personal details of a different claimant late last year.

France Menard said she decided to speak up after reading a Canadian Press report last month about Epiq having inadvertently sent fellow veteran Amy Green the names, email addresses and claim numbers of dozens of other claimants.

Epiq at that time said it had mistakenly disclosed “limited information” about fewer than 100 of the 20,000 people who have applied for compensation as part of the class-action settlement to one other claimant.

“Obviously she’s not the only one,” Menard said in an interview from her home in Fredericton, N.B. “People now are wondering: Is my information out there?”

The Department of National Defence and lawyer Jonathan Ptak, who represents some of the veterans and active service members involved in the three lawsuits settled by the government, said Epiq has since confirmed three different privacy breaches.

Those include two breaches reported by the company on Feb. 8, when The Canadian Press first asked about the information sent to Green, and another on Feb. 24, when Epiq was asked about the email sent to Menard, which she received in November.

“We are aware of the two incidents of inadvertent disclosures that affected 91 class members which were reported about earlier in February and have just been made aware of an additional inadvertent disclosure involving one class member,” Ptak said in an email.