Internet Surveillance Bill on Hold for Now

On November 15, the federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness introduced the long-awaited Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act ("MITA"). The dissolution of Parliament has killed the bill, but observers agree that it will be back in the New Year, regardless of which party forms the government. Bill C-74, the so-called "lawful access" bill, would have required telecommunications service providers ("TSPs") to assist law enforcement and national security agencies in monitoring subscribers targeted by those agencies. Under the Bill, TSPs would be required to take a number of steps to make their networks more surveillance-friendly. Specifically, the Bill would have required TSPs to be able to: isolate the communications of an individual subscriber; decrypt or decompress communications in some circumstances; and, provide the name and address of any subscriber to authorities on demand. The Bill would have also required TSPs to adopt software for their telecommunications apparatus that would most increase the service provider's ability to respond to authorities' requests for surveillance. This requirement would apply even if the provider must purchase additional licences or equipment. Notably, the Bill did not call for TSPs to retain traffic data on all subscribers generally, as has been the case in some European countries. Some TSPs would have been exempt from scope of the Bill, at least in the interim. For example, it excluded those TSPs who provided telecommunications services principally for the use of the provider, the provider's household or employees, and not the public. The Bill also limited its application with respect to TSPs under one hundred thousand subscribers, or those that operated their services primarily for the purpose of servicing post-secondary educational, libraries, and other categories of institutions, provided that the provision of services was ancillary to their principal business or function. The Bill is part of Canada's attempt to ratify the Council of Europe's Convention on Cyber-crime, which the federal government signed in 1997. The Convention calls for greater cooperation between signatories and the adoption of substantive and procedural law amendments to assist in fighting cybercrime. Text of Bill C-74: http://c-74.notlong.com Bill C-74 Backgrounder: http://c74background.notlong.com Convention on Cyber-crime: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/185.htm Summary by: Jason Young