The recent report from Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, entitled “Investigation of the RCMP’s collection of open-source information under Project Wide Awake,” is an important read for those interested in the restrictions that apply to federal government agencies’ collection of this information.
The OPC found that the RCMP:
- had sought to outsource its own legal accountabilities to a third-party vendor that aggregated information,
- was unable to demonstrate that their vendor was lawfully collecting Canadian residents’ personal information,
- operated in contravention to prior guarantees or agreements between the OPC and the RCMP,
- was relying on a deficient privacy impact assessment, and
- failed to adequately disclose to Canadian residents how information was being collected, with the effect of preventing them from understanding the activities that the RCMP was undertaking.
It is a breathtaking condemnation of the method by which the RCMP collected open source intelligence, and includes assertions that the agency is involved in activities that stand in contravention of PIPEDA and the Privacy Act, as well as its own internal processes and procedures. The findings in this investigation build from past investigations into how Clearview AI collected facial images to build biometric templates, guidance on publicly available information, and joint cross-national guidance concerning data scraping and the protection of privacy.
Excited Pixels 