I wrote a piece last year called 7 reasons why warrants aren’t needed in response to some of the discussion on police investigations and ISP cooperation and related matters.
One of the questions raised last year had been “what laws need to be changed” and my posting carried a response from prosecutor David Butt that said the current laws were fine, if ISPs would cooperate.
Yesterday’s National Post had an article that prominently featured my KINSA colleague, Paul Gillespie. The article suggests that a single legislative word change in PIPEDA – the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act – would rectify inconsistencies in ISP responses to police investigations. Just changing the word “may” to “shall” in Section 7(2) is said to be the magic bullet to aid investigations.
(2) For the purpose of clause 4.3 of Schedule 1, and despite the note that accompanies that clause, an organization may, without the knowledge or consent of the individual, use personal information only if
- in the course of its activities, the organization becomes aware of information that it has reasonable grounds to believe could be useful in the investigation of a contravention of the laws of Canada, a province or a foreign jurisdiction that has been, is being or is about to be committed, and the information is used for the purpose of investigating that contravention; …
Such a change would impact the operational response from the telecom industry to police requests. Will the industry support it or fight it?
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