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For those who have been following recent developments in national and international security in the context of our interconnected global data economy, most notably with what pertains to recent leaks regarding the U.S. National Security Agency‘s Program code-named “PRISM”, Craig Forcese was recently asked to provide his views surrounding Communications Security Establishment Canada(“CSEC”) and the massive data logging by its US counterpart. His views were published in an article published by the Globe and Mail entitled “10 Questions about Canada‘s Internet Spying”. In addition to providing links to valuable government reports, the article discusses interesting issues and concernsCanadians may have regarding the existence of similar surveillance programs in Canada. For instance, what safeguards are currently in place to ensure the privacy of Canadians in electronic communications? Is it possible that Canada might have a “PRISM-like intercept program”? Can Canada request assistance from U.S. intelligence agencies, thereby by-passing safeguards under Canadian law? As Forcese rightly underscores, such behavior “could be critiqued as an outsourcing of intelligence collection that does an end-run around Canadian privacy rules”.
Perhaps more critical to the privacy rights of Canadians is Forcese’s opinion that Canadians may be expected to have a reasonable expectation of privacy in “metadata” that is phone numbers; call duration; call location): ”it seems very likely that who you called from where and for how long is personal information of a sort in which you have a reasonable expectation of privacy”. While this opinion may arguably be at odds with the Supreme Court of Canada‘s decision R. v. Gomboc, in which the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed that Canadians have no reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to metadata gleaned from an electricity meter outside one’s house, the comment is nevertheless highly relevant to discussions on privacy considering that Obama defended the NSA’s program by saying that only metadata was collected by the NSA and as such, Americans did not need to be alarmed about their privacy in relation to information conveyed during a telephone call.
In short, the article entitled “10 Questions about Canada’s Internet Spying” is highly informative and should be read by anyone wishing to gain a better and clearer understanding of the mechanics of Canadian Internet/telecommunication spying.
Related articles
- Privacy and Employer-Issued Equipment in Canada (dataprivacyandsecuritylaw.com)
- More on the Tort of Invasion of Privacy in Canada (dataprivacyandsecuritylaw.com)
- Privacy czar to probe Canadian impact of U.S. data program (cbc.ca)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
