Data-collection program got green light from MacKay in 2011. Defence Minister Peter MacKay approved a secret electronic eavesdropping program that scours global telephone records and Internet data trails – including those of Canadians – for patterns of suspicious activity. Mr. MacKay signed a ministerial directive formally renewing the government’s “metadata” surveillance program on Nov. 21, 2011, according to records obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The program had been placed on a lengthy hiatus, according to the documents, after a federal watchdog agency raised concerns that it could lead to warrantless surveillance of Canadians. There is little public information about the program, which is the subject of Access to Information requests that have returned hundreds of pages of records, with many passages blacked out on grounds of national security. It was first explicitly approved in a secret decree signed in 2005 by Bill Graham, defence minister in Paul Martin’s Liberal government. Mining metadata may never reveal what is said. NSA has direct access to tech giants' systems for user data, secret files reveal | World news. The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.
The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says. The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers. Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program.
An Apple spokesman said it had "never heard" of Prism. Tory MP says government should do something about anonymous online comments. Parliament should look into how to raise the level of online discourse by making anonymous commenters identify themselves, according to Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro. “While I believe firmly that the right to free speech must be strongly defended and protected, I also believe it should be backed up by the common decency to stand by one’s words as opposed to hiding behind online anonymity,” the Peterborough MP said in the House of Commons Friday.
“Anonymous online attacks are, in my view, cowardly but they are no less hurtful and represent a caustic scourge that is harming too many in our society.” Mr. Del Mastro, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, first brought up the issue on his Facebook page Thursday. Mr. Del Mastro has rarely spoken publicly in recent months, as Elections Canada probes allegations of campaign spending irregularities by his 2008 campaign. Many websites, including, yes, The Globe and Mail, have struggled with what to do about online commenting.
Magnotta case and online surveillance bill linked in memos - Politics. The controversial online surveillance Bill C-30 would help police catch criminal suspects such as Luka Rocco Magnotta more quickly, according to briefing notes for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews prepared in the aftermath of the gruesome killing of Jun Lin. The documents drawing a link with the Magnotta case and Bill C-30 were drafted and circulated by senior officials June 4 — the same day the suspect was arrested in Berlin and more than a week after the crime occurred. The arrest came after an international manhunt and a video of the crime in progress was posted to an online gore website. Under the heading: "Could Bill C-30 have helped locate [suspect] Luka Rocco Magnotta earlier? " two memorandums decline to comment on specifics of the investigation because it is continuing, but go on to say the bill "would provide police with tools that could prove useful in similar cases.
" The documents, released to CBC News Network's Power & Politics under access to information, also say: Parliament Watch: Proposed PIPEDA Amendments Languish | Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. [author: Tim Banks] Canada’s House of Commons has recessed. Members of Parliament aren’t scheduled to return until September 17, 2012. By then, Bill C-12, An Act to amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (short title: Safeguarding Canadians’ Personal Information Act) will have been on the order paper for almost a year, having been introduced in the House of Commons on September 29, 2011. The Bill doesn’t appear to be moving any quicker than its predecessor, which died when Parliament was dissolved in March 2011. Bill C-12 would give effect some of the legislative reforms recommended following the last 5-year review of PIPEDA (which happened more than 5 years ago!).
If the Bill could ever get some traction and make it into force, it would (among other things): Create a new definition of “business contact information“. Canadian version of SOPA is close to becoming law. Source: Yahoo! News After months of review, it looks like the Harper government’s copyright reform bill will likely become law before Parliament’s summer recess. Bill C-11 passed a final vote at third reading on Monday night, bringing Canadians one step closer to SOPA-like regulation of their media consumption. According to the CBC, the bill was immediately introduced to the Senate after passing the vote, and will likely be sped through the Senate review process, meaning it stands a good chance of becoming law in the coming month. Regular readers of The Right Click are likely quite familiar with what the copyright bill will mean to Canadians: Bill C-11 would allow rights holders to include ‘digital locks’ on their content, which includes music, video, e-books and software.
Users can make copies for personal backups, but all other duplication could result in fines for doing so. Read full article. Border agency to listen in on travellers' conversations - Politics. Travellers already under the watchful eye of security officials at Canadian airports and land border crossings could face increased surveillance in certain customs-controlled areas as the Canada Border Services Agency will soon monitor them with high-definition cameras and use microphones to listen in on their conversations. Government officials are being vague on the details of the program, even to the country's privacy watchdog. But CBC News has confirmed CBSA has installed cameras and microphones at the MacDonald Cartier Airport in Ottawa to watch and eavesdrop on travellers. It is unclear when the new equipment will be operational. Assistant privacy commissioner Chantal Bernier said she was surprised to see recent reports of the measures.
"We are so much in the dark of the scope and details of the measures that I couldn't even comment on it," she said. "We never received a privacy impact assessment, and that is key," Bernier said. "That is what the process should be. Canada's warrantless surveillance bill is back, and bigger than ever, with surveillance powers for US gov't, too. Bill C30, the sweeping Canadian warrantless Internet surveillance bill, is back from the dead. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (who declared that opposition to his bill was tantamount to support for pedophiles) has been working behind the scenes to resurrect his legislation, joining forces with the US government in the name of "perimeter security.
" This proposed deal would expand the warrantless surveillance to US authorities, who could also access Canadians' private information. OpenMedia.ca has been rounding up the names of Canadian MPs who oppose C-30, compiling a master list of the politicians who'll stand with Canadians against this kind of wholesale, international surveillance of their data. They want Canadians to pressure their MPs into taking the pledge. Letter to Supporters: Who's on your side? Why I'm Leaving Facebook. I established a Facebook account in 2008. My motivation was ignoble: I wanted to distribute my journalism more widely. I have acquired since then just over four thousand “friends”—in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the Middle East, and of course, closer to home. I have discovered the appeal of Facebook’s community—for example, the extraordinary emotional support that swells in virtual space when people come together online around a friend’s illness or life celebrations.
Through its bedrock appeals to friendship, community, public identity, and activism—and its commercial exploitation of these values—Facebook is an unprecedented synthesis of corporate and public spaces. There are many reasons to be skeptical about Facebook’s I.P.O., which raised $16 billion for the company. Those are reasons for investors to be doubtful; at least as worrying is what the I.P.O. Within the United States, Facebook is a venue for all sorts of issue and political campaigns. That is a laudable conception. How Canada’s telecoms quietly backed Internet surveillance bill. Canada’s proposed Internet surveillance was back in the news recently after speculation grew that government intends to keep the bill in legislative limbo until it dies on the order paper. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews denied the reports, maintaining that Bill C-30 will still be sent to committee for further study.
Since its introduction in mid-February, the privacy and law enforcement communities have continued to express their views on the bill, but Canada’s telecom service providers, which include the major telecom carriers and Internet service providers, have remained strangely silent. The silence is surprising given the enormous implications of the bill for the privacy of their customers and the possibility of millions of dollars in new surveillance equipment costs, active co-operation with law enforcement, and employee background checks.
The secret working group is designed to create an open channel for discussion between telecom providers and government.