Interpreting Privacy on Campus: The Freedom of Information and Personal Privacy and Ontario Universities

Abstract

When the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) was imposed on Ontario’s university campuses in 2006, faculty and students were made to look closely at their own habits and to reconsider campus traditions relating to privacy. The backdrop to the legislation is a complex matrix of campus relations, policy, sharing of health information, and the use and abuse of information and communication technologies. Part 1 of this article examines the recent history of privacy in general and privacy on campus in Ontario, Canada, and the United States. Part 2 reports the outcome of a series of focus groups held on two Ontario university campuses in which faculty and undergraduate students were asked about their perceptions of privacy on campus and their knowledge and comprehension of FIPPA.