Following last week’s media reports on law enforcement access to telecommunications companies’ subscriber information, the past week saw even more headlines prompted by those and related issues of access to personal information.

The Toronto Star reports, "Surveillance by private corporations and governments is so much part of daily life that many don’t even notice it any more. Yet the surprises just keep on coming”—including reports that “government agencies have made requests to snoop on the telecom and social media data of 1.2 million people, and the providers aren’t likely saying no.”

Meanwhile, Global News reports on a recent interview where Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier indicated “lack of transparency in the system means she has no way of knowing whether government agencies and telecommunications companies are following the rules.”

She is quoted as saying, “We don’t know. I mean that is really the issue here is the fact that we don’t know. We were seeking some kind of specificity around this exchange … I agree with Canadians that in privacy law, probably there the balance is right between privacy and public safety. The point is that we need a record of that. We need accountability.”

Calling for a legislative amendment to require telecoms to provide data on how often information is shared, she said, “Then at least, we would have an idea of the scope of this practice.”

And in a separate report in The Star, Michael Geist presents ways to safeguard privacy, including implementing new government transparency requirements “so that the secrecy associated with hundreds of thousands of disclosure requests is eliminated” and having telecoms and Internet providers issue transparency reports and advise those affected “about warrantless disclosures of their personal information unless a court prohibits them from doing so. Such a requirement would inform Canadians when their information is being disclosed and provide them with the opportunity to contest it if they see fit.” He suggests Canadians “could also use existing law more aggressively to demand that telecom providers reveal any instances of prior disclosures of their information” and recommends the Office of the Privacy Commissioner use “audit powers to investigate the secretive disclosure practices among telecom and Internet providers.”

In an op-ed for National Post, David Young writes of the recent disclosure of telecoms companies sharing Canadians’ data: “To be clear, these disclosures do not represent surreptitious or covert surveillance such as that conducted by the U.S. National Security Agency or the Communications Security Establishment Canada. This is information provided openly and voluntarily by the telcos. But the explanations provided need closer scrutiny so we can understand what is truly taking place.”

And as reported by CTV News, Bernier previously wrote to Treasury Board Secretary Tony Clement with concerns about government collecting data from social networking sites, quoting the letter as stating, “We are seeing evidence that personal information is being collected by government institutions from social media sites without regard for accuracy, currency or accountability.”

Bill C-13

In the wake of last week’s headlines, reports about Bill C-13 are cautioning just how far such data collection could go.

National Post reports Bill C-13 would enable officers “from tax agents to sheriffs, reeves, justices of the peace, CSIS agents and even, yes, mayors” to “request, obtain and use data that has been voluntarily provided to them by telecommunication companies, and it spells out legal immunity for any company that co-operates.”

Citing past concerns from former Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, the report contends, “While the much-lauded bill is supposedly targeting cyberbullying by going after those who share intimate images without consent, so-called ‘revenge porn,’ a bevy of changes sewed onto the back—touching on everything from stealing cable to catching terrorists and regulating hate propaganda—have led it to being decried as omnibus legislation” that one privacy advocate suggests “effectively encourages telecommunications companies to hand over information to the government without a warrant and without any judicial oversight.”

And one attorney referenced in a Herald News report noted, “we need to be cautious. We shouldn’t inadvertently criminalize behaviour that’s not blameworthy.”

Transparent Lives: Surveillance in Canada

The Canadian Press reports on a new book, Transparent Lives: Surveillance in Canada, which suggests personal data “is flowing between the public and private sectors in unprecedented ways, posing fresh risks to privacy.” Authored by 11 members of the New Transparency team led by Prof. David Lyon, the book suggests “surveillance of all kinds is expanding rapidly due to society's newly digital existence at work, rest and play,” noting many surveillance trends “are going unnoticed because they bubble beneath the surface of mundane transactions,” the report states.

"When we use the word surveillance, all too frequently it conjures up these ideas of guys in trench coats on half-lit streets and so on,” Lyon said. “I think it's really important to get beyond that."