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Telecom

Why Isn’t the Government Backing the CRTC on the Wireless Code? [Update: They Are Now]

Update 5/7/14: Government reverses course and announces it will back up the CRTC in court.

The Canadian Press reports that the federal government appears ready to walk away from the CRTC’s proposed enforcement of the new consumer wireless code. While the government has touted the code as an example of a pro-consumer approach, the CRTC’s attempt to ensure the code applied as quickly as possible may be lost due to the government’s decision to stay out of a legal battle over the issue. With the major telcos looking to limit the power of the CRTC and a federal court ruling that the Commission cannot advocate for itself, it falls to the federal government to do so.

The issue was raised yesterday in the House of Commons, yet the government refused to respond directly:

May 7, 2014 — 3 comments — News

Five Measures to Help Counter the Tidal Wave of Secret Telecom Disclosures

The House of Commons engaged in an extensive debate on privacy yesterday in response to an NDP motion that would require the government to disclose the number of warrantless disclosures made by telecom companies. I’ll have more on the debate shortly (it’s worth reading), but the government has made it clear that it will not be supporting the motion.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that the revelations of massive telecom and Internet provider disclosures of subscriber information generated a political firestorm with pointed questions to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons about how the government and law enforcement agencies could file more than a million requests for Canadian subscriber information in a single year.

The shocking numbers come directly from the telecom industry after years of keeping their disclosure practices shielded from public view. They reveal that Canadian telecom and Internet providers are asked to disclose basic subscriber information every 27 seconds. In 2011, that added up to 1,193,630 requests, the majority of which were not accompanied by a warrant or court order. The data indicates that telecom and Internet providers gave the government what it wanted – three providers alone disclosed information from 785,000 customer accounts.

The issue is likely to continue to attract attention, particularly since the government is seeking to expand the warrantless disclosure framework in Bill C-13 (the lawful access bill) and Bill S-4 (the Digital Privacy Act).

May 6, 2014 — 8 comments — Columns

Five Measures to Help Counter the Tidal Wave of Secret Telecom Disclosures

Appeared in the Toronto Star on May 3, 2014 as Five Measures to Safeguard Consumers’ Telecom and Internet Privacy Last week’s revelations of massive telecom and Internet provider disclosures of subscriber information generated a political firestorm with pointed questions to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons about […]

May 6, 2014 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive

Why Have Canada’s Telcos Failed to Notify Subscribers About Disclosing Their Information?

While much of the attention this week on the massive number of requests for subscriber information has rightly focused on the government and a legal framework that provides insufficient oversight (and is about to expand warrantless disclosure under Bills C-13 and S-4), the telecom and Internet companies also deserve greater scrutiny. One of the key questions in the document on telecom and Internet provider disclosure practices asked simply:

Do you notify your customers, when the law allows, that their information has been requested, thus giving them an opportunity to contest the request in court?

The answer from every provider: No.

May 2, 2014 — 14 comments — News

Canadian Telcos Asked to Disclose Subscriber Data Every 27 Seconds

Every 27 seconds. Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month. Canadian telecommunications providers, who collect massive amounts of data about their subscribers, are asked to disclose basic subscriber information to Canadian law enforcement agencies every 27 seconds. In 2011, that added up to 1,193,630 requests. Given the volume, most likely do not involve a warrant or court oversight (2010 RCMP data showed 94% of requests involving customer name and address information was provided voluntarily without a warrant).

In most warrantless cases, the telecommunications companies were entitled to say no. The law says that telecom companies and Internet providers may disclose personal information without a warrant as part of a lawful investigation or they can withhold the information until law enforcement has obtained a warrant. According to newly released information, three telecom providers alone disclosed information from 785,000 customer accounts in 2011, suggesting that the actual totals were much higher. Moreover, virtually all providers sought compensation for complying with the requests.

These stunning disclosures, which were released by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, comes directly from the telecom industry after years of keeping their disclosure practices shielded from public view. In fact, the industry was reluctant to provide the information to even the Privacy Commissioner.

According to correspondence I obtained under the Access to Information Act, after the Commissioner sent letters to the 12 biggest telecom and Internet providers seeking information on their disclosure practices, Rogers, Bell and RIM proposed aggregating the information to keep the data from individual companies secret. The response dragged on for months, with Bell admitting at one point that only four providers had provided data and expressing concern about whether it could submit even the aggregated response since it would be unable to maintain anonymity [I’ve released the full ATIP I received here].

April 30, 2014 — 29 comments — News