The owners of a shoe store in Burnaby came across old documents from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), which reveal sensitive customer information.
Devon Shoes was moving to a new location when the store’s operators came upon three boxes filled with insurance documents at the site. Olivia Gharakhanian, whose family owns Devon Shoes, said the boxes contained forms from the public insurer, as well as other paperwork. The papers bore customers’ full names and banking information, as well as other details.
“We’re moving in, cleaning up and we just open one of the drawers that is not locked and we find all of these documents,” Gharakhanian explained to CBC News.
Gharakhanian took a video of the documents she came across and shared it on social media, hoping to raise attention regarding the potential breach of privacy.
ICBC has since been alerted of the issue and is looking into the matter.
A spokesperson for the Crown corporation explained that the space Devon Shoes is moving into is not a former ICBC office. The company also said through the representative that it is trying to confirm the previous tenant.
“We take the protection of privacy and information very seriously and will take appropriate action upon identifying the source of the breach,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson added that that ICBC is attempting to retrieve the documents; Gharakhanian has confirmed that representatives of the insurer came to the store for the files, and that she turned them over.
