Increase transparency in RCMP stingray use: OPC

The federal privacy commissioner’s office has found that while RCMP use of IMSI catchers wasn’t lawful in some instances, the agency has since changed its policy, and the office was satisfied by RCMP responses regarding the collection of third-party information and interception of voice and text communications. The report, published Thursday, was prompted by a complaint from internet advocacy group OpenMedia filed in March 2016, which noted police agencies at the time were refusing to confirm they were using the surveillance technology, also referred to as stingrays. The RCMP then stated it does use the devices in early April 2017, the privacy commissioner’s report noted, adding that the agency acquired its first stingray in 2005 and now owns 10 such devices. Referring to the delay in publicly acknowledging use of the devices, the report noted a “lack of transparency lead to serious concerns about the capabilities of these devices and how they are being used.” It added: “We strongly encourage the RCMP to continue to make efforts toward openness and accountability in terms of the technologies it employs in its law enforcement activities and the legal authorities it relies on for the use of those technologies,” the report said. OpenMedia responded in a Thursday press release that the government should put in place “strict authorization requirements” for the devices, and called for the RCMP to publish its updated internal policies on their use. It shouldn’t have taken such a lengthy investigation “merely to obtain basic information about how the data of innocent Canadians is being collected and stored by police,” OpenMedia executive director Laura Tribe, who filed the complaint, said in the press release. “It’s clear from this report that much more needs to be done to strengthen safeguards around the use of IMSI-catchers, including raising the threshold of evidence required before these invasive devices can be deployed. This is a pressing issue that must be taken up by the federal government when Parliament returns next week.” The privacy commissioner’s report said that the RCMP uses the devices “to assist in high priority investigations relating to national security, serious and organized crime” and other Criminal Code offenses, as well as circumstances when it’s necessary to quickly locate a cell phone, such as a kidnapping. Out of the 126 investigations where the devices were used in the past five years, there were 13 in which no warrant was issued. Seven of those involved exigent circumstances, which don’t require a warrant, and six took place during a time period of several months in 2015 when the RCMP believed warrants weren’t necessary for their use. In those six cases, stingray use wasn’t lawful and contravened the Privacy Act, the report said. “Although we can conclude that the complaint is well-founded in the case of six … deployments, we believe that the RCMP has taken appropriate steps to remedy this situation, since it now requires prior judicial authorization for all deployments unless presented with exigent circumstances,” it said. The report also noted that the initial complaint was concerned that the RCMP was using the devices to monitor large groups of people in a specific location, and using devices capable of intercepting voice calls, text messages and encryption keys. The investigation established that the devices used by the RCMP “are not capable of intercepting private communications such as voice communications, email messages, contact lists, images, encryption keys or basic subscriber information.” It also said that it was satisfied that third-party information collected by the agency is “properly segregated, secured, retained, and ultimately destroyed at the conclusion of court proceedings.’” In a press release Thursday, the RCMP said it is “committed to continue to find ways to strike a balance between public transparency on the use of the technology, and at the same time, protecting this important tool for public safety and law enforcement purposes.” The RCMP isn’t the only one using the technology, and there have been calls for other police agencies to disclose their use. Rogers Communications Inc. has told the federal government it should hold a consultation on IMSI catcher use, which can be difficult for telecoms to identify. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

Increase transparency in RCMP stingray use: OPC

News | September 14, 2017

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Increase transparency in RCMP stingray use: OPC

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