Cyber-bullying law in final stage

In Europe they just had an election where data privacy and net neutrality were important issues. Some 55 of the 400 candidates for the European Parliament who signed a digital rights charter were

Published on: May 29th, 2014 Howard Solomon

Canadian agencies demand huge amount of info from telcos

Privacy expert are astonished that Canadian government agencies are asking making huge numbers of demands on telecommunications providers and social media companies for subscriber information, most of it without a judicial warrant –

Published on: April 30th, 2014 Howard Solomon metadata can reveal much about an individual.

Of the 174,917 requests received by Rogers, about 87,850 dealt with customer name and address checks. Some 74,415 requests had judicial orders, and another 2,556 had government requirement letters where information had to be turned over.

Some may interpret the Rogers figures as reassuring: In April, when the privacy commissioner revealed that in 2011 there were 1.2 million requests for wireless subscriber information to members of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), observers were stunned. Rogers data suggests that two years later the number of requests that didn’t have warrants was less than 10,000 in a 12-month period. The 87,850 customer name and address checks didn’t have warrants, but Rogers says law enforcement agencies already had that information and only needed to confirm it. IP addresses weren’t given out.

The Rogers report said metadata isn’t divulged to law enforcement without a warrant, nor is direct access to its customer databases.

Asked about Rogers’ position on the controversial C-13, Engelhart said he agrees with calls for the bill to be split into two parts — one covering cyber-bullying and the other on police powers and carriers. So far, however, the Harper government says the bill stands as is.

But Engelhart says an informed debate on the disclosure parts will be welcome. Some of the provisions “seem intrusive to us,” he said, such as one that forces service providers to hold onto subscriber information on request of a peace officer. “If they have an (court) order, they have an order,” he said. “If they don’t, they don’t.”

Asked why Rogers hasn’t spoken out before on C-13, Engelhart said the carrier has been working on its position and “still having some internal debate.”

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