Data Privacy Week @ UBC 2020 Recap

Thank you to all participants and attendees of the 2020 Data Privacy Week @ UBC

More than 140 staff, faculty and researchers attended 5 unique events held during the week of January 27th - 31st.

With data privacy becoming a fundamental concern for UBC employees, the Privacy Matters @ UBC team expanded International Data Privacy Day to a full week of activities at both the Vancouver and Okanagan campus.

Programming was developed to highlight some of the ways that data privacy rules apply to UBC staff and faculty. Thank you to Data Privacy Week presenters from the Office of the University Counsel, the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Safety and Risk Services, and Advanced Research Computing.

If you were unable to attend one of the Data Privacy Week @ UBC events (Fundamentals Training notwithstanding) in-person, please visit the Events Archive page. Video recordings of some of the Data Privacy Week events will be posted soon.

An event survey is being distributed the week of Feb. 3 to participants as part of the evaluation for this year’s programming. Survey results will be brought forward for consideration in shaping next year’s events.

Congratulations to Elena Polishchuk and Christine Squire from UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan respectively. Both attendees were randomly selected as the winner of an iPad which was awarded for attending one of the Data Privacy events and completing the Privacy & Security Fundamentals training!

Please keep in mind all of the different ways in which UBC can support you in protecting your privacy, both online and off. As an example, UBC recently launched the second part of the online Privacy and Information Security – Fundamentals course, available through Canvas. This course is mandatory for all faculty and staff, and we urge you to take it as soon as you have the opportunity.

Also, ensure the data on your computer and mobile is protected in the event that your device is lost or stolen, by having them encrypted. Did you know that encryption is a mandatory requirements for all mobile devices - whether UBC-supplied or personally-owned— used for University Business? Encryption is also a requirement for desktop computers containing High or Very High Risk information. You can request encryption by contacting your faculty or department’s local IT support. Click here to learn more.

It is important that we all do our part to protect the personal information of our students, faculty, and staff as well as any other confidential information we hold on behalf of UBC. Thank you for helping to keep UBC’s data secure.