B.C. Public Sector is approved to use Microsoft Cloud Technologies including Office 365

Apps

Nov 10

As of January 30th, 2018 British Columbia’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has approved the use Office 365, Intune, Power BI and parts of Azure for use by the B.C. Public Sector.

Background

In the days following the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, the United States government passed a number of new laws, including the United States Patriot Act. As a result, in Canada, most provinces updated their privacy legislation. In 2004, British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA) came into effect, setting clear expectations about how public sector organizations should be treating the personal information of B.C. residents. Under Section 30.1, the privacy act specifically states that no personal information can be stored or accessed outside Canada. A provision that focused on the sovereign residency of data – something that couldn’t be promised by Cloud technologies and their routing arrangements across internationally dispersed networks.

After consulting with Microsoft, the Privacy Commissioner and many other stakeholders, the OCIO has updated the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) to formally approve use of certain Microsoft technologies that abide data residency requirements.