With growing concerns over data privacy, personal information protection has become more important now than ever. As a result, many companies including Universal Health Hub (UHH), have taken the initiative to be especially shrewd in this area when developing new technology. To assist with this ongoing focus for the company, WIMTACH assessed the company’s novel mobile application and its compliance with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in a 20-Hour Interactive Visit.

Leveraging WIMTACH’s research capacity, a research team led by WIMTACH Principal Investigator Viji Angamuthu, performed a detailed review of the application’s codebase and system architecture, identified privacy gaps, and provided actionable recommendations to strengthen privacy compliance against risks to user data security. Ultimately, the team was able to successfully produce a comprehensive, principle-based evaluation of their application’s data handling practices. “WIMTACH brought a strong blend of technical expertise, industry experience, and an innovative approach. Their understanding of our needs and ability to translate them into a practical solution made them the perfect partner for this project,” said Maya Nathani, Founder and President of UHH.

Over the course of this project, the WIMTACH research team developed an innovative approach to privacy compliance assessment by using Principle-Based Compliance Mapping to directly link technical findings to individual PIPEDA principles. This approach to compliance mapping enabled ease of traceability and adherence to each compliance principle. As well, the team employed a source code analysis which identified implicit data flows, third-party dependencies, and privacy vulnerabilities at the implementation level. More, the team was successful in providing in-depth insights into systemic privacy risks. “This project will significantly strengthen our operational efficiency and expand our capacity to serve our community. We anticipate measurable improvements in both service delivery and user engagement in the months ahead,” said Nathani.

Research findings from this project were integrated into systematic documentation as well as a dedicated PIPEDA compliance checklist. The checklist outlined clear, actionable recommendations to enhance the application’s adherence to Canadian data privacy regulations.

Ultimately, this project enabled UHH to improve their understanding of PIPEDA compliance laws and they successfully increased the user trust in their mobile application, boosting confidence among investors, and regulatory bodies.

More, the project also provided UHH a structured, reusable compliance checklist. It is now a reliable resource which will serve as the company’s reference for long-term and ongoing regulatory alignment initiatives. With this assessment resource, the UHH team is enabled to scale and gain consistent privacy evaluations for any technology-based project. “Working with WIMTACH has exceeded our expectations. The team’s professionalism, responsiveness, and commitment to quality were evident throughout the process,” said Nathani.

Moving forward, the UHH team will be scaling their technology solutions and introducing more data-driven decision-making processes and they hope to continue a partnership with WIMTACH to achieve this goal. “We would highly recommend WIMTACH to other companies. Their collaborative approach and dedication to client success make them an outstanding partner,” said Nathani.