Firms won’t say how often feds given customer info without warrant: commissioner

OTTAWA – Canada’s privacy commissioner says telecom companies have refused to tell her office how often they provide the federal government with personal customer information without a warrant.

Chantal Bernier, the interim privacy commissioner, says her office has repeatedly asked telecom companies to disclose statistics and the scope of warrantless disclosure of data, to no avail.

But she says the companies have only provided her office with aggregate data, which shows how many times the telecom industry as a whole gives the government customer information without a warrant.

Last month, the Chronicle Herald newspaper in Halifax reported the Canada Border Services Agency alone accessed telecom customer data almost 19,000 times over one year — and no warrant was used more than 99 per cent of the time.

The law allows Canadian telecom companies and Internet providers to hand over customer information without a court order to help law-enforcement investigations.

Bernier says she would like to see statistics published so Canadians know how many times their personal information is given to the government without a warrant.