If I may respond to the question on behalf of Ms. Bruce, I have been assured that there are IT safeguards in place to ensure that all of the personal information collected, stored and transmitted on these systems is secure and uses encryption, that VFS only provides administrative support services to applicants, and that all visa-processing decision-making is done by Canadian IRCC officers and not by the company contracted to provide the IT support.
On February 25th, 2021. See this statement in context.