UPDATED: Conservative MP Brassard demands investigation into cellphone tracking

Conservative MP John Brassard wrote a letter Jan. 5 to Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien asking for an investigation into cellphone data tracking by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). The agency says it is using the information to contain the spread of COVID-19. “As you know, protecting the privacy of Canadians must be paramount for any government or government body,” the MP wrote to the commissioner. “Protecting this privacy is even more important during a crisis when there is a temptation by some to overlook the privacy of Canadians.” On Dec. 19 PHAC filed a request for proposal seeking access to cell tower-based location data from Jan. 1, 2019 to May 31, 2023. The data, which would be stripped of all identifiers, would come from across the nation. “It wasn’t until the initial contract came out that we even knew about this,” Brassard told The Wire Report in a phone interview. Even the privacy commissioner is uncertain about what is happening, he added. “It raises numerous red flags that PHAC essentially tracked Canadians and collected their mobile data without clearly communicating this to Canadians,” the letter continued. “Using the pandemic as an excuse to violate the privacy of Canadians is never okay. It’s even worse when a government or government body does it in secret.” Brassard was quite clear about what he wants from the commissioner. “During this investigation, I am also asking that you report back on what safeguards the government put in place during this practice and why the government failed to clearly communicate to Canadians that they were collecting their mobile data,” he wrote. The Conservative critic for ethics and accountable government told The Wire Report he does not rule out calling PHAC before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, on which he sits, to explain the situation to parliamentarians. Brassard expects it will be several days before he gets a response from Therrien. The Privacy Commissioner’s Office permitted the use of an app to track COVID patients in 2020. Health Canada emailed a reply to The Wire Report on Friday afternoon. “Over the course of the pandemic, PHAC has been working with commercially available mobility data providers,” the department said. “This type of mobility data is available to industry, academia, not-for-profit and other organizations at the discretion of mobility operators who are custodians of this data.The goal of working with this de-identified and aggregated mobility data was to better understand the impacts of population movement patterns on the propagation and resurgence of COVID-19. Going forward, PHAC plans to examine the utility of these data to enhance understanding of other complex public health challenges such as mental health, chronic and other infectious diseases.” The ministry said it had issued a request for proposal to purchase cell phone service data. Such information will be cleaned of all personal identifiers. “Throughout this process, PHAC has consulted with privacy and ethics experts, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, to ensure the Government of Canada’s access to and use of mobility data follows best practices,” Health Canada added. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

UPDATED: Conservative MP Brassard demands investigation into cellphone tracking

News | January 7, 2022

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UPDATED: Conservative MP Brassard demands investigation into cellphone tracking

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