Privacy complaints against insurers trending downwards

Information privacy complaints against insurance companies have dwindled from 50 in 2004 down to seven as of September 2007, according to Elizabeth Denham, the director of the research analysis and stakeholder relations branch of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.Overall, the industry has had only 119 privacy complaints made against its members over the past four years. That includes 50 complaints in 2004, 32 in 2005, 30 in 2006, and thus far only seven in 2007.Thats a relatively small number of complaints, given the number of insurance companies I believe there are more than 230 insurance companies and especially considering the number of clients, the number of transactions [between insurers and clients] and the very nature of disputes and relationshipsthat can give rise to privacy complaints, Denham told more than 100 people attending the Insurance Bureau of Canadas (IBC) 2007 regulatory affairs symposium in Toronto.Denham said the predominant subject of the complaints has been pretty consistent over the past four years. Many complaints have been about an insurers denial of a policyholders access to information request. Other complaints had to do with the way insurers collect and gather their information.But while people did not generally have much to complain about when it comes to the insurance industry and privacy breaches, an audience member asked about the thorny issue of how long property and casualty insurers should be holding onto policyholders data. The questioner noted litigation against P&C insurers often has a long tail, noting the example of the residential school claims.Long litigation tail or not, Denham replied, if a file is closed, and the client is no longer your client, then after seven or 10 years, whats are the reasons for maintaining those records? It is a complex area, but the law says that once you no longer require a record for business purposes, then it should be destroyed.