CRTC, Privacy Commissioner asked to launch inquiries into alleged privacy breach in Niagara phone call misconnections

The CRTC and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada are looking into reports that people calling voice lines in the Niagara region of Ontario were being connected to random strangers’ phone calls instead of reaching those they intended to speak with, raising privacy concerns amongst customers and demands for inquiries from an advocacy group. The Niagara Regional Broadband Network said in a social media post Friday, July 25 that its customers in the Niagara region experienced a “widespread telephony issue” with phone calls over the Bell and Rogers voice networks. It later said the issues were resolved the same day. Other posts on social media from alleged Rogers customers indicated they would try to call a particular phone number only to be connected at random to strangers’ conversations. One poster indicated the strangers on the line could not hear them speaking, though the caller alleged they could hear their private conversation. Another said they overheard what they believed was someone talking to a client regarding information from their credit bureau, while yet another said they heard a discussion about backyard chickens, and someone else reported hearing a conversation they believed to be between an individual and their doctor. A Rogers spokesperson told The Wire Report via email Tuesday, July 29 that a “very small number” of customers had problems in the Niagara region “when making or receiving a phone call with a Bell landline on Friday,” either when they called from a Rogers line to Bell landlines or when calling from a Bell landline to a Rogers line. “Our technical team worked closely with Bell to quickly resolve the issue by that evening,” the spokesperson said of the problem, which was related to an issue with hardware on the transport network that connects Rogers to its partner carrier. Patricia Garcia, manager of public affairs with Bell, said in an email to The Wire Report that the company is “aware of a cross-talk incident on the Rogers network that occurred in the Niagara region on Friday, July 25. “Based on our investigation, there is no evidence that Bell’s security safeguards were breached or that our network infrastructure caused any unauthorized disclosure of Bell customer personal information,” Garcia wrote. “Rather, our findings indicate that all voice service providers (including Bell) routing calls to and from Rogers’ wireless and wireline numbers in the region at that time may have been exposed to the issue. Since the issue took place entirely outside our network, we are unable to comment further on the incident.” Franca Palazzo, the executive director of the Internet Society’s Canadian chapter, wrote in a post on the group’s website that it is “deeply troubled” by the incident. She noted the allegations that some callers were inadvertently connected to private calls between individuals discussing sensitive personal and medical information. “This is not just a technical glitch; it is a fundamental failure in protecting the privacy and trust of Canadians,” Palazzo wrote. She called on the CRTC and Privacy Commissioner of Canada to launch inquiries into the matter. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has reached out to both Rogers and Bell about the matter “to obtain more information and determine next steps,” spokesperson Tobi Cohen said in an email to The Wire Report, when asked if the Privacy Commissioner would be launching an inquiry. “Our immediate focus following any breach is on ensuring that the organization is taking the necessary steps to address the issue and to mitigate any risks to Canadians,” she said. CRTC spokesperson Mirabella Salem said in an email to The Wire Report that the regulator is investigating the issue. “For additional information we recommend reaching out to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Bell, and Rogers,” the statement read. A spokesperson for the Niagara Regional Broadband Network told The Wire Report it determined the issue originated outside of its network and said it is “committed to the privacy and service integrity our customers expect. “We are actively collaborating with our voice provider as they investigate the root cause and full scope of this incident.” ‘Canadians need to trust their phone system’ Matthew Gamble, vice chair of the Internet Society’s Canadian chapter, told The Wire Report he experienced the phone-call problem himself after hearing about the issue from a Niagara-based customer of his IT consulting firm who was having problems with phone calls that day. “I tried calling their number and all of a sudden got somebody else’s audio and went ‘this is weird,’ then looked at their switch and went ‘nope, it’s not hitting your network at all.’ I reached out to Bell, got Bell on the line, and Bell said ‘the calls aren’t even hitting us, you need to call Rogers.’ I’m a Rogers customer, so I tried to open a Rogers ticket and the person thought I was insane…,” he stated. Gamble is based in Oakville, Ont. As he made additional calls to the Niagara area, he alleges he continued to randomly be connected to other people’s phone calls, including being connected to a call with a Shoppers Drug Mart where he heard someone’s name and prescription. In his case, “you wouldn’t hear both sides of a call, you would hear one side and it was receive-only,” he said. “Each one it was about 25-26 seconds and then the call would hang up automatically.” “Canadians need to trust their phone system. We all believe that when we dial a number we’re going to get where we’re going…If we’re having a conversation with somebody else, we’re the only two people privy to that conversation.” Some people online questioned whether outdated technology could be part of the problem. “Maybe newer equipment would prevent it, but we need to understand how it even happened in the first place,” Gamble said. “We’ve heard of calls being misrouted, going to the wrong party. In the older analogue days, yes, there was cases of cross-talk, et cetera where you’d hear other people’s calls, but those are smaller isolated things. The idea that calling an entire area would have a problem like this, I have not heard of.” Both Palazzo and Gamble see the problem as reasoning for why there should be greater competition in the Canadian telecom market. “We have very few telecoms left in this country; there’s a lot of concentration. Often carriers ‘this is a small isolated issue,’ they don’t see it as being a problem. This is where we need the regulator to step in and say ‘this is a problem. You need to tell us what happened. Disclose the cause, the scope, and safeguards you’re going to put in to prevent a recurrence,’” Gamble said. “I don’t think the CRTC needs to be looking at every time someone’s internet goes down, but when we have obviously large issues that affect a lot of people, there needs to be some sort of mechanism in place to hold carriers accountable for the networks they’re building.” hdaley@thewirereport.ca

CRTC, Privacy Commissioner asked to launch inquiries into alleged privacy breach in Niagara phone call misconnections

Regulatory |
By Hannah Daley
| July 29, 2025

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

CRTC, Privacy Commissioner asked to launch inquiries into alleged privacy breach in Niagara phone call misconnections

Regulatory | By Hannah Daley | July 29, 2025

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Bell, Rogers come to agreement for distribution of specialty channels

Telus wants Bell lawsuit over third-party internet access dismissed, launches counterclaim

FCC approves Bell, Ziply merger

Bell accuses Telus of misleading CRTC regarding Manitoba outage

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Regulatory |
By Hannah Daley
| July 29, 2025