Toronto Police Chief Bragged About Monitoring Protesters and Anonymous Is Pissed

Toronto Police Chief Bragged About Monitoring Protesters and Anonymous Is Pissed:

In his speech, Blair bragged about the Toronto Police Service’s (TPS) ability to monitor an Israel/Palestine demonstration in 2012, which happened on the same day as Toronto’s Grey Cup celebration.

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VICE contacted Christopher Parsons, a cybersurveillance researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, to discuss this line between legality and ethics.

“The legality of monitoring public communications isn’t entirely black and white… but it doesn’t strike me that what [Bill Blair described] was necessarily illegal,” said Parsons in an emailed statement. “That authorities are monitoring public communications, where authorities are not considered to be a ‘member of the audience,’ really gets to the heart of many contemporary privacy debates: under what conditions is something private or not?”

Parsons said the legal situation is similar to the context of a barroom.

“Bars are public places,” he said. “People talk loudly and are overheard by strangers at neighbouring tables. But we have a privacy-based expectation that when we speak to our friends or colleagues the people three tables down aren’t just overhearing (they might have to if I’m being loud!) but recording the communication for purposes I wouldn’t approve of.”