Canadian police hacking power bill is criticized

Canada’s privacy watchdog has criticized a Conservative government bill to combat cyberbullying. The proposal gives the police and customs authorities extensive powers, including hacking telephones and computers.

With the new powers, investigative authorities could track people by, for example, secretly placing spyware on a smartphone. The police could purchase a commercial package for this, something that the German police, for example, is already doing with the so-called Bundestrojaner. A suspect could install it via a phishing email. Data can also be stolen with such software.

According to the drafters of the law, the powers, which still require permission from a judge, are necessary to tackle cyberbullying, child pornography and other criminal activities. However, the privacy watchdog and civil rights organizations state that there are significant risks of abuse associated with the law, partly because such heavy resources can be deployed too quickly.

The bill also includes an article in which companies that voluntarily provide data from citizens to government agencies or the police are exempt from any possibility of prosecution. This immunity rule is also strongly criticized.

The Canadian privacy watchdog has asked the government to split the current bill into two parts, with the new investigative powers still to be extensively discussed and investigated by politicians. A second, non-controversial part could already be approved by parliament.