BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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BC FIPA Makes Submission for the Customer Name and Address Information Consultation by Public Safety Canada
BC FIPA sent its submission for the Customer Name and Address Information Consultation to Public Safety Canada today. FIPA outlines three main concerns with the CNA proposal.
[T]he proposals go beyond maintaining existing powers in order to cope with new technology … [and] would actually lower the threshold currently required to obtain Canadians’ personal information and expand the areas in which law enforcement agencies may intrude into the lives of individuals.
The consultation document provides no concrete evidence to support the claim that new technologies present challenges to investigations. Nor does it provide evidence to suggest that the expanded powers will in any way improve law enforcement agencies’ ability to investigate crimes or prevent terrorist activity.
The consultation document attempts to equate the sensitivity of personal information such as a phone number or address with the sensitivity of an IP address. The two are not equivalent … Whereas an individual’s address does not reveal anything about where the individual goes or what they do in their private lives, the IP address has the potential to reveal all these things. For this reason, law enforcement access to IP addresses is a rather invasive proposal.
BC FIPA sent its submission for the Customer Name and Address Information Consultation to Public Safety Canada today. FIPA outlines three main concerns with the CNA proposal.
[T]he proposals go beyond maintaining existing powers in order to cope with new technology … [and] would actually lower the threshold currently required to obtain Canadians’ personal information and expand the areas in which law enforcement agencies may intrude into the lives of individuals.
The consultation document provides no concrete evidence to support the claim that new technologies present challenges to investigations. Nor does it provide evidence to suggest that the expanded powers will in any way improve law enforcement agencies’ ability to investigate crimes or prevent terrorist activity.
The consultation document attempts to equate the sensitivity of personal information such as a phone number or address with the sensitivity of an IP address. The two are not equivalent … Whereas an individual’s address does not reveal anything about where the individual goes or what they do in their private lives, the IP address has the potential to reveal all these things. For this reason, law enforcement access to IP addresses is a rather invasive proposal.