Government agencies requested telecom users’ data more than 1 million times

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OTTAWA—Canadian authorities made more than one million requests for telecommunications companies to turn over customers’ information in 2011, according to numbers released for the first time Tuesday.

The shocking figure was provided by telecommunications firms at the request of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in 2011. A report prepared by Gowlings, which surveyed nine telecommunications agencies, found that:

The companies responding in the Gowlings report, prepared for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, are not named directly. However they represent a “substantial proportion” of Canada’s wired, wireless and internet service providers.

Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier said her office has repeatedly tried to get information on the scope of government access to Canada’s telecommunication companies, but has met with resistance from the industry.

“We have tried, many times. We have sought out information from the telecoms to find out, and they’ve given us very general comments,” Bernier said.

“We would like there to be a provision in law that creates a framework, a legal framework, to let Canadians know exactly what is (the scope of) the warrantless access.”

Bernier has called on the federal government to require private telecom companies to publicly disclose how often they turn over their customers’ data without a warrant. She said that while such warrantless access is sometimes justified, Canadians have a right to know the scope of the practice.

Documents tabled in parliament earlier this month revealed the Canadian Border Services Agency requested customer information from telecoms almost 19,000 between April 2012 and March 31, 2013.

But CBSA appears to be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to authorities requesting users’ data.

David Fraser, a privacy lawyer for McInnes Cooper, said it’s difficult to guess the scope of the issue — and noted that authorities ranging from the smallest municipal police force to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service can make the requests.

“There’s not a whole lot of transparency or visibility at all, but I would suggest that at least the little bits of information that we have suggest that the scope of this is quite large,” Fraser said.

“I would have thought that what CBSA does would be a drop in the bucket. And the scale of their numbers suggest we’re dealing with a very large bucket.”

Bernier was speaking after testifying before a Senate committee on Bell Canada’s new privacy policy, which gives the company the ability to collect vast amounts of data on their customers’ online activities. Bernier’s office has launched an investigation into the policy, and has received approximately 170 complaints.

Bernier could not say if her office is investigating any law enforcement agency’s collection of user data.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/04/29/telecoms_refuse_say_how_often_they_hand_over_customers_data.html