(OTTAWA) The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Philippe Dufresne, has called on elected officials scrutinizing the use of spyware by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to make it mandatory to prepare security assessments. impact on privacy when the Privacy Act.
Posted at 12:30 p.m.
“To generate trust, it would be better, far better if the privacy impact assessment was done up front, that my office was consulted and that it could be communicated in some way. another to Canadians,” he said Monday in a parliamentary committee in Ottawa.
In that moment Privacy Act does not require the RCMP or any government institution to conduct privacy impact assessments for the commissioner, Dufresne noted. However, Treasury Board makes them mandatory by policy.
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics convened the summer session after the RCMP admitted to the use of means to covertly obtain data from a cell phone or from a computer.
In response to a written question tabled in the Commons last June, the RCMP defended itself by saying that it had obtained warrants during ten investigations to use these tools to obtain text messages and emails or to put running away from cameras and microphones.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada was not informed or consulted about the software before its implementation or since, Dufresne said Monday. In fact, his office learned of its use at the end of June when the media broke the news.
The RCMP says it has started preparing an impact assessment in 2021, but the commissioner says he still hasn’t seen the color of it.
“We see situations like this where it is done very late after a certain time of using the tool. So we’re not in a position where we can investigate or prevent. We are in reactive mode,” lamented Mr. Dufresne.
Questioned by the Bloc Québécois ethics critic, René Villemure, the commissioner did not go so far as to call for a moratorium on the use of spyware.
The committee has scheduled meetings for Monday and Tuesday. Witnesses who will appear before the committee include Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, current and former Privacy Commissioners of Canada, and RCMP officers who oversaw the use of this software spies.