Rogers got 175,000 official requests for customer info last year:
An informal coalition — including The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, academics and civil liberties organizations — said in March that Canadians have only a vague understanding of how, why, and how often companies have disclosed information to government agencies.
This week the coalition received an updated response from Internet provider TekSavvy Solutions — one of Rogers’ smaller competitors — saying it received 52 requests from government authorities in 2012 and 2013. It made 17 disclosures related to criminal investigations and denied the remaining 35.
Christopher Parsons, a postdoctoral fellow with The Citizen Lab, said the Rogers and TekSavvy reports are “positive steps in the right direction.”
He singled out TekSavvy’s response as “the gold standard” for company transparency on handling of subscriber information due to the extensive detail in its report.
“The bar has now been set: transparency reports are expected when doing business in Canada,” Parsons said.
“There’s only a question of how long until other companies adhere to what is becoming an industry best practice in Canada.”
Excited Pixels 