Can Personal Information Be Shared Between Departments?

Last updated on December 1, 2021

Both Stephanie and Barb write to us asking how personal information collected by a business can be used and shared between different departments.

Question 1

Can information be shared among different departments within the same organization without contravening privacy laws? I don’t see this specific question answered anywhere.

Thank you!

—Stephanie

Question 2

Can addresses be shared within a company from payroll to Gift Processing, so that we can make sure that a tax receipt gets to them?

—Barb

Answer

Hi Stephanie and Barb,

Privacy legislation does not put any restrictions on the transfer of personal information from department to department within an organization. As long as the personal information is not being used for any new purposes for which your organization has not collected consent, it can flow between individuals and departments as necessary.

This question is often asked because an organization may find new uses for personal information once it has been collected from an individual. For example, someone in your organization’s marketing department may realize just how useful it would be to analyze and market to a list of customer information collected for another purpose. This behaviour is not allowed under privacy legislation.

—M.G.