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

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

Privacy

The Secret Lawful Access Regs: What the Gov Told the Telcos While Keeping the Public in the Dark

My post yesterday on a secret government – telecom lawful access working group attracted considerable attention with many understandably focused on the revelations that virtually all major Canadian telecom companies (with the notable exception of Shaw) actively worked with the government for months on lawful access legislation. Yet perhaps the most important document is a lawful access regulations policy document that offered guidance on plans for the extensive regulations that will ultimately accompany the Internet surveillance legislation. The specific document obtained under Access to Information is dated October 2010 and was created to support an earlier version of the lawful access bill.  However, the same government documents indicate that the policy document was provided to telecom providers last fall, including disclosure to the Canadian Network Operators Consortium in December 2011 after CNOC was at an event a month earlier with Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and expressed support for the lawful access bill.

The regulations policy document are not the regulations per se, but rather a clear indication of planned regulations under the guise of a policy document. The document contains several key sections:

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May 23, 2012 13 comments News

Is Lawful Access Dead? Not Yet.

The Globe’s John Ibbitson has a column that confirms much of the private speculation about lawful access, namely that the bill is going nowhere so long as Vic Toews remains public safety minister. This is consistent with the prevailing view that Toews is so closely associated with the worst of […]

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May 16, 2012 2 comments News

Alberta Court of Appeal Rules Portions of Privacy Law Unconstitutional

The Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled that portions of the provincial privacy statute are unconstitutional. The decision, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401 v Alberta (Attorney General), is online. Discussion here, here, and here.

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May 8, 2012 1 comment News

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before: Digital Economy Strategy Coming Later This Year

Industry Minister Christian Paradis spoke at the Canada 3.0 conference in Stratford yesterday, providing an update on the government’s digital economy plans. Paradis trumpeted some of the measures in the budget as well as the trio of related laws – privacy reform, copyright reform, and anti-spam legislation (which he indicated […]

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April 25, 2012 6 comments News

European Data Protection Supervisor Slams ACTA on Privacy Grounds

The European Data Protection Supervisor has issued a new opinion on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, expressing serious concerns about the impact of the agreement on privacy and data protection (a prior opinion was released in 2010). The EDPS states:

Many of the measures that could be implemented in the context of Articles 27(3) and 27(4) of ACTA would involve a form of monitoring of individuals’ use of the Internet, whether by detecting actual IP rights infringements or by trying to prevent any future infringements. In many cases, the monitoring would be carried out by right holders or right holders’ associations and third parties acting on their behalf, although they often seek to delegate such task to ISPs.

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April 25, 2012 1 comment News