Rogers received over 170,000 sub-info requests in 2013

Rogers Communications Inc. said Thursday it received 174,917 requests for information on subscribers from government agencies last year, though it did not say with how many it complied. The company issued what it called its 2013 Transparency Report, in which it said more than half — 87,856 — of the requests were to confirm customers' names and addresses. Ken Engelhart, Rogers' vice-president of regulatory affairs and chief privacy officer, said in the report's introduction that the company responds to such requests for names and addresses "so police do not issue a warrant to the wrong person. Otherwise, we only provide customer information when forced by law or in emergencies after the request has been thoroughly vetted." Besides requests for names and addresses, Rogers outlined the types of information asked for as follows: 74,415 court orders or warrants; 9,339 emergency requests from police pertaining to life-threatening situations; 2,556 government letters that compel disclosure under federal or provincial law; 711 requests relating to a child-exploitation emergencies; and 40 in the form of court orders under international mutual legal assistance treaties. Rogers did not indicate how often it responded to requests by providing the information authorities sought. Instead, it said in its report: "If we consider an order to be too broad, we push back and, if necessary, go to court to oppose the request." Asked why this report was released at this particular time, Rogers spokeswoman Jennifer Kett said in an email: "There has been a lot of discussions on privacy and surveillance issues, and some have raised concerns about government requests for customer information. We want our customers to know their personal information is in good hands." Jake Enwright, press secretary for Industry Minister James Moore, said in a phone interview that Rogers' report demonstrates "that the government is not accessing Canadians' personal information without proper legal authority." Smaller Internet service provider TekSavvy Solutions Inc. issued a report Wednesday that also detailed disclosures of subscriber information to government authorities. Its document was in direct response to a campaign by a group of academics, led by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which in January starting seeking information about disclosures of subscriber information to public agencies from Canadian telecommunications companies. TekSavvy said it received 52 requests from government agencies about its customers' use of communications devices and services in 2012 and 2013. It said it provided information in 17 of those cases and denied 35. With regard to the criteria it uses to decide whether or not to comply with such requests, TekSavvy said: "Our general legal standard is to require that government agencies provide a warrant, provide a production order, or demonstrate that obtaining one is justified but unfeasible due to exigent circumstances, such as a live bomb threat." The group of academics, let by Chris Parsons, a researcher at the Citizen Lab, had initially set a deadline of March 3 for companies to respond to its questions. Shortly after that date, the organization said 10 of the 16 companies that it contacted had responded. Most of the submissions contained little information. Rogers had made one of those initial responses. TekSavvy did not and apologized in Wednesday's submission for being late. In an email Thursday, Parsons said TekSavvy "comprehensively responded to the questions posed to them. ... They’re to be congratulated on their excellent effort. Rogers’ report is a positive step in the right direction but falls dramatically short of responding to the questions we put to them." Parsons said TekSavvy provided a more "comprehensive accounting" than Rogers as to how it treats requests for disclosure from government. He said this "inhibits the average Canadian from really understanding the full scope of laws that Rogers (and other telecommunications companies) must operate under." Telus Corp. spokesman Shawn Hall said in an email that the company is planning on releasing a "transparency report" this summer, adding that "we only provide confidential customer information to third parties pursuant to valid court orders or other applicable law." BCE Inc. spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis said in an email: "Bell releases information to law-enforcement agencies only when required by law and always in compliance with federal privacy and CRTC regulations." She did not indicate whether Bell planned to publicly release figures on government requests for subscriber information. Such disclosures come as federal Parliament considers two bills, C-13 or the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, and S-4 or the Digital Privacy Act, both of which have been criticized for loosening protection of personal information held by telecom-service providers. Michael Geist, Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, told the Senate's transport and communications committee on Wednesday that Bill S-4 would allow telecom companies to give out subscribers’ personal information to anyone, not just law enforcement. “While the government has claimed that this provision should not concern Canadians, the reality is that the broadly worded exception will allow companies to disclose personal information to other companies or organizations without court approval,” Geist said, according to text of his remarks posted on his personal website. The bill, which amends the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), also has a “glaring omission,” he said, because it doesn’t expand disclosure on the so-called lawful access requests for subscriber info from telecom companies. “Most Canadians have no awareness of these disclosures and have been shocked to learn how frequently they are used and that bills before Parliament propose to expand their scope,” Geist said. Witness testimony on Bill S-4 has wrapped up. Next week, the transport and communications committee is scheduled to begin a clause-by-clause review of the legislation. In a statement posted online on April 15, Industry Minister Moore said the bill represents “a balanced approach to protecting Canadians’ personal information, while still allowing for information sharing when illegal activity has occurred.” Moore said the bill “will not force companies to hand over private information to the police, ‘copyright trolls’ or anyone else. The Act will place strict limits and tight restrictions on the type of personal information companies can disclose to other organizations.” On Tuesday. Daniel Therrien, the government’s nominee for privacy commissioner —who was confirmed to this position by Parliament on Thursday — told the Senate that telecom companies should disclose statistics about requests they receive for customers' information. In April, interim privacy commissioner Chantal Bernier released a 2011 letter from telecom companies that showed the government makes nearly 1.2 million requests for subscriber information per year, on average. — With reporting and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca

Rogers received over 170,000 sub-info requests in 2013

News | June 5, 2014

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