The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) released a report last week that calls on Canadian spy agencies like CSEC and CSIS to be clearer about what they do with the personal information they collect on Canadians. The special report is called Checks and Controls: Reinforcing Privacy Protection and Oversight for the Canadian Intelligence Community in an Era of Cyber-Surveillance. It appears the OPC is saying that the cloak of "national security" should no longer provide a carte blanche for collecting personal data without any oversight or accountability. Some recommendations from the report:
- Require CSEC to produce annual non-classified reports about its activities
- Expand reporting requirements on use of surveillance and electronic monitoring
- Reform privacy legislation like the Privacy Act and PIPEDA to control over-collection of information. Key suggestions include requiring agencies to explain the need for collecting personal information and conducting assessments on how data collection may impact individual privacy
- Increase parliament's oversight role, including regularly calling on members of the intelligence community to appear before committee
It will be interesting to see if Parliament and the spy
agencies are receptive to the recommendations and if any of the recommendations are
implemented.
Link to the special report:
CBC Article:
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