New police powers coming?
OTTAWA — Police will be given new powers to eavesdrop on Internet-based communications as part of a contentious government bill, to be announced Thursday, which Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan has said is needed to modernize surveillance laws crafted during “the era of the rotary phone.”
The proposed legislation would force Internet service providers to allow law enforcement to tap into their systems to obtain information about users and their digital conversations.
Police have lobbied for a new law for almost 10 years, saying that they need to access “Internet safe havens” for gangsters, sexual predators and terrorists.
“This is really not about the warrantless tracking of Canadians’ Internet use,” said Clayton Pecknold, of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
Privacy advocates and civil libertarians, however, have vocally opposed the prospect of giving police “lawful access” to the digital conversations of Canadians by being able to access such things as their text messages, e-mails, web surfing habits and Internet phone lines.
“It is an issue that has proven to be very, very controversial,” said Michael Geist, a law professor at University of Ottawa and public commentator on Internet legal issues.
“The consistent criticism and concern that has been expressed is that there has to be some evidence that there is a real problem here and in the past we haven’t seen that,” he said.
“Why is the status quo not good enough? What investigations have been impeded?”
[More]
Popularity: 18% [?]
Male, retired and the rest is of little interest to anyone. The site keeps me busy and if it helps others to stay abreast of daily events then my time is well spent.
stageleft Says:
Another government invasion of personal privacy in the name of keeping us safe…. all together now “if you’ve nothing to hide you’ve nothing to fear — AWK!! — if you’ve nothing to hide you’ve nothign to fear!! “
Posted on June 18th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
stageleft:. life on the left side : As Soon As they Tell You You’ve Nothing To Fear – Says:
[...] h/t Jacks Newswatch ] Tech Tags: Canadian+Politics Conservatism Conservative+Party+of+Canada 1984 Stephen+Harper [...]
Posted on June 18th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
UV Says:
Alls not lost Stageleft cause we still have the HRC looking after our individual freedoms. NOT!
Posted on June 18th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Mac Says:
Unless there is something completely radical in the proposed legislation (which I doubt) it will still be necessary to seek judicial authorization (a Part VI warrant) in order to intercept communications. In my experience, such authorizations are exceptionally difficult to obtain… but don’t let that keep you from screaming that the sky is falling and Big Brother is breathing down your neck…
Posted on June 18th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Cynapse Says:
Looks like it’s time to get more serious about encryption. 256-bit encoding would take so long for the cops to scramble that the criminal’s children would die of old age because they completed their intercept. There’s no reason why all email and P2P can’t be communicated this way (although it will slow things down considerably)
Posted on June 23rd, 2009 at 9:43 pm