RCMP use of private-sector surveillance services worries watchdog

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It isn’t the primary time the RCMP’s use of latest expertise has run afoul of federal privateness regulation.

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The Canadian Press

Jim Bronskill

Printed Feb 15, 2024  •  2 minute learn

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OTTAWA — A federal watchdog is urging the RCMP to do a greater job of assessing the privateness implications of economic surveillance and monitoring providers earlier than utilizing them.

In a report launched Thursday, privateness commissioner Philippe Dufresne additionally recommends the Mounties be extra clear with Canadians about their assortment of private info from open-source intelligence gathering.

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Dufresne investigated the RCMP’s Challenge Huge Awake, which makes use of third-party providers to gather private info from sources together with social media, the darker reaches of the web, location-based functions and fee-for-access databases.

The RCMP makes use of the info to probe potential crimes, find lacking individuals, determine suspects, detect threats at public occasions and guarantee consciousness throughout an unfolding state of affairs, the report says.

Dufresne expressed specific considerations in regards to the RCMP’s contract with U.S. firm Babel Road for its Babel X service.

The report says the Mounties didn’t correctly confirm that the private info given to the RCMP by Babel X and its knowledge suppliers was collected in compliance with Canadian privateness legal guidelines.

“Policing is essential and sophisticated work that requires efficient instruments designed for at present’s digital setting,” the report says.

“Rigorous vetting of privateness impactful third-party providers is important to making sure that the basic proper to privateness is revered.”

The report says the RCMP “was unwilling to commit” to implementing the commissioner’s suggestions.

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They included a name for the RCMP to cease accumulating private info by way of Babel X from sources that require logins or authentication to entry till it has accomplished an intensive evaluate of every one for compliance with the regulation.

“Due to this fact, this matter is unresolved, and persevering with contraventions and violations of Canadians’ privateness rights could also be occurring,” the report says.

Dufresne’s workplace maintains that thorough vetting of providers and extra transparency “will assist public belief in our nationwide police drive and can enable the RCMP to fulfil its essential public curiosity mandate in a privateness protecting means.”

It isn’t the primary time the RCMP’s use of latest expertise has run afoul of federal privateness regulation.

In June 2021, Dufresne’s predecessor, Daniel Therrien, discovered the RCMP broke the regulation through the use of cutting-edge facial-recognition software program to gather private info.

Therrien stated there have been critical and systemic failings by the RCMP to make sure compliance with the Privateness Act earlier than it gathered info from U.S. agency Clearview AI.

Clearview AI’s expertise permits for the gathering of big numbers of photographs from varied sources that may assist police forces, monetary establishments and different shoppers determine folks.

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Amid concern over Clearview AI, the RCMP created an inner program supposed to judge compliance of assortment methods with privateness laws.

Nonetheless, this system’s evaluate of Babel X didn’t embody complete assessments of all of the providers included within the RCMP’s contract with Babel Road, “regardless of indicators and crimson flags in its personal supplies of potential non-compliance,” the privateness commissioner’s report says.

The commissioner was “subsequently unable to conclude that the RCMP’s ongoing assortment of private info from the big selection of information sources out there by way of Babel X is compliant” with the Privateness Act.

The RCMP had no instant touch upon the commissioner’s report.

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