Wiertz Sebastien - Privacy by Sebastien Wiertz (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/ahk6nh

Privacy

The Verizon Privacy Risk: Are Canadian Carriers A More Privacy-Friendly Choice?

As part of the campaign against Verizon, opponents have begun to focus on the privacy implications of allowing the U.S. giant into Canada. In a blog post on the company site, Telus points to its privacy work (including fighting a key case to the Supreme Court of Canada) and then raises the spectre of a loss of privacy should Verizon enter the market:

The Canadian government needs to take a hard look at this important issue and ensure that Canadians’ privacy expectations continue to be met; especially if a U.S. communications company sets up shop here. Some U.S. laws, such as Patriot Act, can be quite invasive and could have detrimental impacts on the level of privacy experienced by Canadian wireless users.

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union raised similar concerns in an article over the weekend that warned about the danger of NSA spying on Canadians should Verizon enter Canada.

August 12, 2013 — 12 comments — News

Canada’s Lawful Access Bill Appears to Have Contained a Provision to Enable PRISM-Style Surveillance

As the revelations about U.S. secret surveillance continue, one of the more interesting recent articles was a Buzzfeed piece that focused on a Utah ISP that hosted a “little black box” in the corner inserted by the National Security Agency. The article describes how a Foreign Intelligence Service Act (FISA) warrant allowed the NSA to monitor the activities of an ISP subscriber by inserting surveillance equipment directly within the ISP’s network. The experience in Utah appears to have been replicated in many other Internet and technology companies, who face secret court orders to install equipment on their systems.

The U.S. experience should raise some alarm bells in Canada, since the now defeated lawful access bill envisioned similar legal powers. Section 14(4) of the bill provided:

July 29, 2013 — 10 comments — News

Supreme Court of Canada To Hear Appeal of Warrantless Cellphone Search Case

The Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave to appeal in the Fearon case, which involved an Ontario Court of Appeal decision permitting a police search of a cellphone that was not password protected or locked during the course of an arrest. I referenced the case in a brief post […]

July 15, 2013 — Comments are Disabled — News

Debating Surveillance and the Law in Canada

The recent stories about surveillance in the United States and Canada have generated increased debate in the media over the issue and I’ve been privileged to participate in several discussions. Last week, I sat down with Nick Taylor-Vaisey of Maclean’s to discuss the issue. The full interview is now posted here. Further, CBC’s Cross-Country Check-Up spent two hours discussing surveillance and privacy on Sunday’s show. I appeared as a guest at about the 54 minute mark. Yesterday, I also participated in a far-ranging debate on surveillance and transparency on TVO’s The Agenda. The video version of the program should be online shortly, but in the meantime a podcast version is available.

Finally, my technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) this week focuses again on the disconnect between 20th century laws and 21st century surveillance. It notes that revelations about secret surveillance in the United States involving both Internet-based communications and the collection of metadata from all cellphone calls immediately raised questions about the possibility of Canadian involvement or the inclusion of Canadian data. Given the common communication infrastructure and similarities between Canadian and U.S. laws, it seemed likely that Canada was engaged in much of the same activities. Within days, it was reported that Canada has its own metadata surveillance program, with the ministerial approval coming in 2011 from Defence Minister Peter McKay.

June 18, 2013 — 11 comments — Columns

Canadian Surveillance Laws Can’t Handle Modern Day Snooping Technologies

Appeared in the Toronto Star on June 15, 2013 as Surveillance Laws Can’t Handle Modern Snooping Technologies Revelations about secret surveillance in the United States involving both Internet-based communications and the collection of metadata from all cellphone calls immediately raised questions about the possibility of Canadian involvement or the inclusion […]

June 18, 2013 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive