Thursday, February 21, 2013

Canada Student Loans Privacy Breach

So I'm sure many of you have heard by now about the Canada Student Loans Privacy Breach. Basically according to HRSDC a "electronic storage device" containing information regarding various student loan borrowers from the years 2000-2006 was misplaced. According to this site, they sent out letters to everyone who was affected to let them know what happened and what steps they should take. I did not receive a letter so I thought I would call the toll free number. 

I spoke to a very nice lady who confirmed that I was indeed affected and I gave her my current address to resend the letter. The government has arranged with Equifax to set up extra protection for all those that were affected, free of charge for 6 years. Basically it just says that if you are trying to get another loan you will have to take a few extra steps to verify your identity. So I figured I might as well sign up for it so she said she would forward my info to Equifax and they would send me a letter to confirm that the extra protection was set up for me. 

But now I'm starting to wonder if I should of done that. I told my mom and she kinda freaked out on me saying I shouldn't have done that because now if I need to get a loan for something they are going to give me a huge hassle. I don't really plan on getting any other loans in the next 6 years unless its a mortgage (which is a big deal) so I'm kinda worried now. 

Once I get this letter from Equifax I'm going to call them to get more information regarding what these "extra steps" would be that I would have to go through to get another loan in the future. I hope this wasn't a mistake :( Ugh. 

2 comments:

Northern Living Allowance said...

I just called and found out that I was affected as well. I didn't get a letter because I've paid off my student loans and they didn't have my current address. I signed up for the protection and am not worried. The RCMP is already monitoring my SIN number and I was told that to prove who I was, I'd need to show some sort of gov't ID: driver's license, passport, etc. Like you, I'm not planning on any taking out any loans, but who knows? But for my own security, I'm happy to comply.

The Asian Pear said...

Sorry to hear it happened to you too.

I called Transunion and ask them to monitor my SIN as well. It's only $6 for extra piece of mind anyhow.