Canada’s privacy commissioner says telecom companies are refusing to divulge how many times they have given customer information to the federal government without a court warrant.
Canada has laws that protect citizens’ personal information. They allow Canadian telecom companies and Internet providers to hand over customer information without a court order to help law-enforcement investigations.
“I’m not disputing that there are times when there is no time to get a warrant — life is in danger,” said Chantal Bernier, interim privacy commissioner. “What we would like is for those warrantless disclosures to simply be represented in statistics so that Canadians have an idea of the scope of the phenomenon.”
About 1.2 million requests for private information
Only nine of the 13 companies she asked provided statistics and even then, only as an aggregate number. The federal government asks Canadian telecom companies for private customer information about 1.2 million times a year, according to the commissioner’s report.
‘Laws must be modernized’
Opposition NDP Member of Parliament Glenn Thibeault said this shows privacy laws must be modernized and strengthened to better protect Canadians’ personal information.
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