Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

CND Government Demands Widespread Tap Access

Posted by Zonk on from the keeping-up-with-the-times-indeed dept.

north_of_49 wrote to mention a Globe and Mail article stating that the Canadian government is seeking the ability to conduct surveillance on the communications of its citizenry. From the article: "The major boost in interception capacity is in proposals the government has put forward in confidential negotiations with the telecom industry as it prepares new legislation on high-tech wiretapping scheduled to be introduced next month. Government officials insist their proposals will bring Canada's laws on wiretaps -- drafted when people still attached alligator clips to telephone lines to listen in -- up to speed with new technologies. But privacy advocates fear an erosion of safeguards, and telecom companies worry the government wants them to build in a costly interception system."

6 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Shortform of Canada by HeyBob! · · Score: 5, Informative

    is CDN - Thanks!

  2. Should be a fun charter challenge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    I'm pretty sure somehthing like this would violate the Charter of Rights.

    Fortunately laws like this are only good for 5 years until a new government has to pass another exception to the charter (charter exceptions are only good for 5 years, no more, and must be passed repeatedly by all new successive governments for the law to stay on the books).

    Specifically, this violates section 8 of the charter:


    8. Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.
    1. Re:Should be a fun charter challenge by sedyn · · Score: 3, Informative

      FTA: "Ms. McLellan noted that law-enforcement officials will still have to obtain a warrant from a judge to intercept e-mail or Internet transmissions, as they always have with telephone wiretaps."

      Therefore, people are not being searched unreasonably, meaning this won't be challenged. Having the capacity to do something and actually doing it are two different things.

      --
      Am I open minded towards open source, or closed minded towards closed source?
  3. Privacy, Schmivacy by JoshDM · · Score: 3, Informative

    Look, the ability is currently NOT THERE. This is a request to put the ability to listen properly into place. That doesn't mean that every conversation is going to be tracked; they want the ability to there in the event that it's needed. Funding a listening program is going to likely be a separate concern. Northern Paranoids can relax for now; Big Maple Leaf Brother isn't going to be listening into your pseudo-French/English conversations about hockey, you hoser.

    1. Re:Privacy, Schmivacy by Nos. · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, the summary is a bit misleading. What this is, is a bill to request that telecommunication companies have the CAPACITY to allow authorities WITH warrants to perform wiretaps on a variety of services including email and phone. The capacity they want is about 1/5000 users. So, if you're an ISP with 10,000 users, you need to be able to tap 2 users simultaneously. This isn't news, and certainly nothing that matters. On average 2000 warrants for taps are issued per year in Canada, and are only good for 60 days without renewal.

  4. Re:not that this will stop snotty American brats.. by XFriday · · Score: 3, Informative

    What good is a piece of paper (ie. the constitution) if your politicians routinely stomp all over it, ignore it, or otherwise interpret it to be compatible with the desires of the day? I would rather have no piece of paper and a government with some semblance of sanity, rather than a piece of paper and a government that does not give a shit what it says.