Privacy Commissioner’s Report confirms that system is broken
Privacy Commissioner’s Annual Report confirms that system is broken when it comes to Bill C-51 and CSE metadata sharing
OpenMedia says Privacy Commissioner’s findings underscore the need for a complete repeal of Bill C-51 and an end to the bulk collection of Canadians’ metadata
September 27,
2016 - The federal Privacy Commissioner’s annual report has raised serious
concerns about how the controversial information disclosure
provisions in Bill C-51 have been implemented. The report
also found that the Communications Security
Establishment’s (CSE) practice of sharing metadata with
its Five Eyes partners undermines the privacy of Canadians,
and proposed legislative changes to address the
problem.
The publication of the report comes just
weeks after the government announced a nationwide consultation on a broad range
of privacy and security issues. In his report, Commissioner
Therrien criticized the government’s framing of these
issues, stating that the tone “focuses heavily on
challenges to law enforcement” and that Canadians need to
hear about the implications “for democratic rights and
privacy.” Civic society groups, including OpenMedia, have
levelled similar criticisms.
“When it
comes to both Bill C-51 and CSE spying, it’s clear the
system is broken,” said OpenMedia’s communications
manager David Christopher. “Since Bill
C-51 was first announced, experts have warned about the
damage these information sharing provisions would cause to
the privacy and security of Canadians. And we’ve known for
years that metadata sharing risks exposing the most intimate
details of our private lives. It’s commendable to see the
Privacy Commissioner sound the alarm about these
issues.”
Christopher continued: “The previous
government took an ‘act now, think later’ approach to
Bill C-51 and CSE mass surveillance, and nearly a year into
the new government’s term we’re still waiting for the
fix. It’s also clear the government stumbled badly in
designing a national security consultation that even its own
Privacy Commissioner says is skewed. All in all, this report
reinforces the need for a complete overhaul of our privacy
rules if we’re to keep Canadians safe from invasive
surveillance.”
Experts have long warned about the dangerous privacy
implications of Bill C-51’s information sharing
provisions, and about how metadata can expose highly sensitive details of
someone’s private life, including their financial status,
medical conditions, sexual orientation, and religious and
political beliefs.
Key findings from the Privacy
Commissioner’s annual report include:
• Most
government departments did not conduct Privacy Impact
Assessments to evaluate the privacy implications of Bill
C-51’s new information sharing powers.
• Public
Safety Canada failed to implement recommendations from the
Privacy Commissioner about how to mitigate the privacy risks
of information sharing, despite having a year to do
so.
• The scope of recently-announced national security
consultations is too narrow and doesn’t look at key
privacy concerns when it comes to Bill C-51. Commissioner
Therrien also flagged concerns about the tone of the
accompanying discussion paper.
• A review of CSE’s
metadata sharing concluded that CSE was incorrect to claim
the risk to privacy was minimal, because metadata can
“reveal very sensitive information about individuals’
activities, associates, interests and
lives.”
• Judicial authorization should be continue
to be required before telecom companies disclose basic
subscriber information to the government, because “an IP
address can reveal a great deal about an individual”
including “details of a person’s interests based on
websites visited, their organizational affiliations, where
they have been and the online services for which they have
registered.”
Canadians can send Public Safety
Minister Goodale a message that it’s time to fully repeal
Bill C-51 and restore our privacy rights at https://act.openmedia.org/security.
About OpenMedia
OpenMedia
works to keep the Internet open, affordable, and
surveillance-free. We create community-driven campaigns to
engage, educate, and empower people to safeguard the
Internet.