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Helpful Places

Government of Canada – DTPR AI Register

AI Assistant for Internal Information Retrieval

Inform

What it collects that can identify you

About behaviour
Pseudonymous data
  • Queries and search interactions submitted by GC employees through the SharePoint chatbot interface, including the text of questions and navigation actions taken.

Also collects operational data, which is anonymized data.

Run by
Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization

What it is for

Inform

This system deploys a chatbot on Microsoft SharePoint Online websites used by employees of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA). It helps staff find information and navigate shared file repositories more efficiently. The system is used internally by Government of Canada employees only and is not citizen-facing. It is built and hosted on Microsoft's technology platform.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

About behaviour
Pseudonymous data
  • Queries and search interactions submitted by GC employees through the SharePoint chatbot interface, including the text of questions and navigation actions taken.
Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Files, documents, and content stored in CATSA's SharePoint Online file shares that the chatbot indexes and searches to respond to employee queries.

Processing

Search & Retrieval
  • The system uses Microsoft's built-in search and retrieval capabilities on SharePoint Online to match employee queries against indexed file share content and return relevant results.

What it does

Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • The chatbot interprets employee queries in natural language and retrieves relevant content from SharePoint file shares. Employees decide what to do with retrieved information.

Outputs

A recommendation or prediction
Anonymized data
  • Links, file references, or document summaries returned by the chatbot in response to employee queries. Outputs are advisory — employees decide whether and how to use the retrieved information.

Run by

Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA)
  • CATSA is the federal agency responsible for air transport security in Canada. It deploys this SharePoint chatbot for use by its Government of Canada employees to streamline internal information retrieval.

Government of Canada AI Register — Sharepoint Chatbots

Built by

Microsoft
  • Microsoft is the technology vendor that builds and supplies the SharePoint Online platform and chatbot capability on which this AI system runs.

Government of Canada AI Register — Sharepoint Chatbots

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • System outputs and query logs are accessible to CATSA as the deploying organization. Access is limited to authorized GC employees within the CATSA SharePoint environment.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseGC employees interacting with the SharePoint site should be informed that a chatbot AI system is in operation. Contact CATSA's internal IT or privacy office for more information about how the system works.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyGC employees have the right to understand, in general terms, how the SharePoint chatbot retrieves and surfaces information. Details of Microsoft's underlying model are subject to vendor confidentiality, but CATSA should be able to explain the system's general logic on request.

Risks and safeguards

No risks or safeguards have been published for this system yet.