A call for vigilance: protect your tenants’ personal information!

Sensitive information that needs protecting

To rent out and manage housing units, you need to collect and keep personal information, sometimes sensitive, about prospective and current tenants. You must collect, use, keep and share this information securely, in accordance with the obligations set out in Quebec legislation.

Here are some good practices to adopt:

• Limit collection to the information you need for the intended purposes.
• Be careful with artificial intelligence tools. Avoid entering information that could identify a prospective or current tenant, such as ID documents, tenant screening reports or documents containing financial information, until you have checked the confidentiality and security safeguards in place.
• Secure how you store and share your documents. Restrict access to authorized people. Avoid public sharing links or links that anyone with the link can open, including on Google Drive.
• Limit how long you keep personal information, and destroy it securely once you no longer need it, subject to any applicable legal obligations.
• Protect your accounts. Use strong passwords and turn on multi-factor authentication whenever possible.

Serious consequences

Poor handling of personal information can expose the people concerned to fraud or identity theft. It can also make landlords and property managers liable and expose them to legal action if harm results.

Learn more

The Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec website outlines the obligations that apply to the protection of personal information.

Want to learn more? Join CORPIQ’s November 18 webinar (in French), Cybersecurity and AI: Threats and Best Practices. You’ll get a clearer picture of the risks that come with new technologies and learn which good practices to adopt.

 Register for the November 18 webinar!