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Canadian Government Backs Down On Airport Recording
New submitter ryanakca writes "In a followup to a story we discussed on Sunday, Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has ordered a halt to the installation of eavesdropping equipment at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport until a privacy review could be completed. Although 'similar audio-video equipment has been operating at other Canadian airports and ports of entry for "many years,"' the Canadian Border Safety Agency failed to complete the Privacy Commissioner's required 'privacy impact assessment' before the Ottawa airport installation."
Hurray! So instead of putting them in now, the government will get a report done, spin it so it benefits them, THEN get them installed anyway but this time with some publicity of being "good for security and for the country"! Give me a break.
Practice Static Safety - Hack Naked
"While a completed (privacy impact assessment) is not a requirement that prevents the CBSA from continuing with AV monitoring and recording, it will provide us with additional information concerning how we can strengthen current practices and continue to evolve our operations," Nadon said.
Nope, it's install and use regardless of the report...
It's the American way! :)
For the humor impaired -- I know the difference between the US and Canada.
Vietnam Veteran / Former Postal Worker -- Use Caution When Taunting!
What's the point of spying on people if you're not using one of those nudovision contraptions. Silly Canadians.
Hitler hates pedophiles.
The summary says "the Canadian Border Safety Agency failed to complete the Privacy Commissioner's required 'privacy impact assessment'". Note the use of the word "required". So if it was required and nobody did it, somebody broke a rule. Who's going to be accountable for that and what will their punishment be?
Surely it wouldn't be no punishment since that would just be sending a message that rules can be ignored and nobody will be held accountable.
I don't think there's a difference anymore.
Our eavesdroppers are bilingual.
No joke, dead serious---Here in the US, they scan you again if you sneeze....really-- I sneezed, looked up, and all these TSA agents were looking at me like I killed someone. I'm like crap! I probably have a booger! I wiped my nose and turns out nothing! Maybe five minutes, later 5 TSA agents said I was selected for random re-screening. WTF!!! But who knows...maybe they just liked my crotch...
Frankly I could care less if they are recording me in a public venue. I'll just carry my camera and record them right back. (The iPhone 4 has a 720p camera right? Maybe it's time to invest in one.)
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
I care about being recorded in a public venue too! I wish I cared less about it than I do.
OK, headline says "Canadian Government Backs Down On Airport Recording"
Summary says "Canadian Government Halts Airport's installation of recording equipment due to failure of due process"
Article says "Canadian Government is a stickler for red tape, but doesn't care about the results"
"until a privacy review could be completed"
Which is another way of saying until the uproar dies down so we can sneak it in later without objection.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
So Vic Toews has been kicking around a lot in the news... that internet surveillance thing he's been pushing hasn't exactly been winning him a lot of fans (at least any fans that completely don't understand the internet).
$50 says this is him trying to clean up his image.
$100 says that as soon as his image is "clean" and he's heralded as the pinnacle of people's rights, he'll push through something far worse than what we've seen before.
$200 says it's right after an election that puts him where he wants to be, and very far away from another election that would otherwise oust him for doing as such.
This is the government that wanted anyone authorized by the Minister (Minister Vic "You-support-this-spying-bill-(which-I-Haven't-Read)-or-you-support-child-pornographers" Toews), someone such as Pierre Poutine, to scour telecommunication records of anyone they deem worthy (watch out opposition MPs - the old election fraud scams need updating).
They're just worried about Conservative MPs using the airport on a weekly basis. After all, their privacy is paramount, such as the same Minister being so upset and the gov't going on a witch hunt when public court records were posted to VikiLeaks that showed this minister knocked up his baby sitter, left his wife & children, and didn't pay proper support payments.
Worst government in Canada's history; an illegitimate regime aquiring majority status through lies & election fraud: a coup in other words. A silent one. Like Quebec's Quiet Revolution but on a national scale, and malevolent.
The problem was the airport they chose to do it at.
Instead of some major or not-so-major one, they chose to use Ottawa airport. Which of course is frequented by all the politicians who may be having well, inflight meetings. You can bet having them listened to and recorded will probably make them uneasy and thus quash it.
Last thing they need is for someone to leak out juicy details about meetings with industry following legislation.
After all, Vic Toews has decided it would be better to have child pornographers than have their precious "constituent" meeting details leaked.
The difference between US Customs & Border Protection and the Canadian Border Safety Agency is that the primary purpose of the CBP is to inconvenience Americans. The CBSA's purpose, on the other hand, is to inconvenience Americans.
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Privacy Impact Assessment. Sounds like annoying red tape that will tie up the government for an inconsequential amount of time.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I'm almost certain they've listened in on lineups using microphones or parabolic microphones for a very long time. The change now is probably due to automation of the process. A computer can only be so accurate and the audio needs to be recorded for review by an officer. Maybe I'm wrong but they were legal to use listening devices - just not record?
My experience:
I was heading out on a student trip from Edmonton to Japan in 1988 or so. I whispered under my breath to my friend in the security line that "I hoped my baby brother hadn't put his squirt gun in my luggage". I was at least 50 feet back from the nearest security agent. As I got closer to the front of the line a female officer approached me and warned me not to talk about guns in the security line and that I was almost removed from the student trip. The only explanation that made sense to me at the time was that they had installed microphones in the ceiling or were using a parabolic microphone.
There are other possible explanations ( like someone tattling on me.. and it was my classmates in line). I pondered it for quite a while at the time and the most plausible explanation to me at the time were microphones. 9/11 wasn't an issue but the Air India bombing had just occurred a few years earlier.
... because the logical conclusion is without continuous recording, the airport—and eventually the entire country—will be overrun with child pornographers.
I mean, look at what happened over the last 145 years: thousands, if not millions, of child pornographers have been rattling at the gates of poor Canada, trying to get in. Why do you hate Canada?
No, I say let them film, x-ray, record, and take DNA samples of every traveller. Because if they don't, then someone's child, perhaps my own, will get pornographized. It is an unescapable fact.
Yeah, right.
It was interesting that when the program was first revealed the justification was to help monitor gang activity in the airports among the cargo and luggage handlers. But the deployment is in the passenger spaces. Then we get informed that they are doing the same at border crossings. Any real terrorist or criminal would be smart enough to use code phrases to communicate in a public area where they might be monitored -- anybody ever watch TV? So what is the real objective? Will we be expected to chant the praises of dear leader? Or participate in a two minute hate? Only nice part of a surveillance society is that they drown in data -- ask Eric Honecker how well that worked? Meanwhile, welcome to the Peoples Republic of Harperland...
In Canada they pay extra for terms like Long live free Quebec, De Gaulle, Long live Montreal, Quebec sovereignty, The October Crisis and any hint of a new Quebec Liberation Front.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
This is just a great way to increase revenue in airports. Follow me on this
Let the TSA hire "models" (both male and female) in screening roles.
Let passengers opt out, and for an additional charge, they can PICK their groper.
"Hi, here's $20, can the hot brunette please fondle my business? I swear I don't have anything illegal, but (s)he really needs to check thoroughly. Thanks"
This signature is false.
That's not what a "Privacy Impact Assessment" is. It isn't a report to determine whether collecting the data is a good idea or not. It's the identification of the information acquired, it's use, it's storage, and the risks associated with the government retaining that data and how those risks are mitigated.
It really has nothing to do with the project going ahead or not, it's simply the identification, mitigation, and acceptance of risks.
It's incredibly counter intuitive to "spin" a PIA.
A terrorist has just flew a plane into Canada's biggest Tim Horton's restaurant! Residents all over the nation rests timbits in rivers in honor of the donuts that were lost. In loving memory of decaf double-double 1967 - 2012.
FTA:
"While a completed (privacy impact assessment) is not a requirement that prevents the CBSA from continuing with AV monitoring and recording, it will provide us with additional information concerning how we can strengthen current practices and continue to evolve our operations," Nadon said.
Nope, it's install and use regardless of the report...
Wrong. The Canadian agency HAS to fulfill the impact assessment before the system goes live. Since one was never requested or conducted, it's been shut down until one is completed. The assesment itself is not going to block anything, that's not its purpose. It's there to provide information to Parliment who can either choose to go forward as-is, scrap it completely, or make modifications.
If America did not eavesdrop, then Canada WOULD HAVE to eavesdrop, just to be different!