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A new administrative scheme that would allow police to obtain basic information about Internet subscribers without a warrant is one option being considered by federal officials following a landmark Supreme Court ruling that curbed access to such data, Canadian police chiefs say.
The glimpse into federal deliberations about how to address the highly influential court decision comes in a newly published background document from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which is urging the Ottawa to fill the legislative gap.
Law-enforcement agencies require "real-time, or near real-time" access to basic subscriber information – usually a telecommunications customer's name and address – to investigate everything from child sexual exploitation to terrorist threats, the police chiefs say in a resolution passed at their recent annual conference.
A researcher who has long pressed for more transparency around police access to subscriber data said Monday that law-enforcement agencies have yet to make the case for warrantless access – especially since companies can make information available quickly in a genuine emergency.
"We're not at a point where it's clear the police have a legitimate concern," said Christopher Parsons, a postdoctoral fellow with the Citizen Lab at Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs.
In June, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled police need judicial authorization to obtain subscriber data linked to online activities. The high court rejected the notion the federal privacy law governing companies allowed them to hand over subscriber identities voluntarily.
The court judgment came amid swelling public concern about authorities quietly gaining access to customer information with little evident scrutiny or oversight.
Telecommunications companies and other service providers – such as banks and rental companies – now demand court approval for nearly all types of requests from authorities for basic identifying information, the police chiefs say.
They reveal that a discussion paper spearheaded by the Department of Justice was recently presented to the federal, provincial and territorial cybercrime working group of senior officials. It outlined three legislative options for allowing access to basic subscriber information:
– An administrative scheme that wouldn't involve court approval;
– A new judicial order process or a tweak to the existing regime;
– A judicial order process for subscriber information with a greater expectation of privacy, and an administrative, non-judicial one for less sensitive subscriber data.
The chiefs say they will keep abreast of the efforts of the working group, which plans to meet in November. At the same time, two of the chiefs' own committees will develop legislative proposals.