{"id":56016,"date":"2020-12-15T07:44:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T12:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56016"},"modified":"2020-12-15T07:44:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T12:44:24","slug":"privacy-commissioner-launches-investigation-of-rcmp-internet-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56016","title":{"rendered":"Privacy Commissioner Launches Investigation of RCMP Internet Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Privacy Commissioner Launches Investigation of RCMP Internet Unit<\/a><\/h3>\n

The probe comes after Tyee reports on Project Wide Awake and web spying. Here are some questions to pose to the force.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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\"WideAwakeProjectMain.jpg\"
A series of Tyee reports unmasking social media spying efforts by the RCMP spurred NDP MP Charlie Angus to call for a federal investigation.\u00a0Illustration by Christopher Cheung.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has launched an investigation into the RCMP\u2019s Tactical Internet Operational Support unit and Project Wide Awake, the unit\u2019s advanced web monitoring program using digital tools it kept secret.<\/p>\n

The office is probing \u201cthe RCMP\u2019s collection of the personal information of Canadians under Project Wide Awake,\u201d deputy commissioner Brent Homan of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner confirmed in writing to NDP MP Charlie Angus.<\/p>\n

Angus, a member of the parliamentary Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, called for an investigation in a letter sent Nov. 23, following Tyee\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0exposing Project Wide Awake and related programs at the RCMP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have grave concerns about the level of secrecy and duplicity the RCMP has gone through to hide their activities into procuring and using these tools to gather information on Canadians,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a> Angus in the letter.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI am very concerned that these internal documents appear to contradict how the force characterized Project Wide Awake to your office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The files obtained by The Tyee revealed that the RCMP\u2019s Tactical Internet Operational Support unit requested \u201cnational security exceptions\u201d which enable it to hide contracts for software it acquired. The force argued if the software was publicly procured, its capabilities might be defeated by people targeted for spying.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the RCMP emphasized that its software only seeks \u201copen source\u201d information online, implying that its sources were only those in the public domain.<\/p>\n

However, The Tyee investigation reveals that the force may consider any information it can acquire online, by any means, to be \u201copen source.\u201d<\/p>\n

Documents show that the RCMP purchased a license for a program that \u201cunlocks\u201d hidden friends for Facebook users who have set their friends to be private. The provider of Web Investigation Search Tool, used by police around the world, discontinued its operation after a Tyee report.<\/p>\n

The RCMP also listed \u201cprivate communications\u201d and those from \u201cpolitical protests\u201d in a diagram of \u201cdarknet\u201d sources, which it aimed to target with a \u201cdark web crawler\u201d and monitoring software.<\/p>\n

The internal documents obtained by The Tyee also contained references to programs that appear related to digital surveillance but outside of Project Wide Awake, including ones named Cerebro, Sentinel and Search, and a reference to \u201cexpansion of biometrics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here are some questions about the RCMP\u2019s Tactical Internet Operational Support unit the privacy commissioner inquiry might seek to resolve:<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Privacy Commissioner Launches Investigation of RCMP Internet Unit The probe comes after Tyee reports on Project Wide Awake and web spying. Here are some questions to pose to the force. A series of Tyee reports unmasking social media spying efforts by the RCMP spurred NDP MP Charlie Angus to call for a federal investigation.\u00a0Illustration by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24021,103,1339,5570,30716,30583,3542,3543,23884],"class_list":["post-56016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-bryan-carney","tag-canada","tag-internet","tag-mass-surveillance","tag-privacy-commissioner","tag-project-wideawake","tag-rcmp","tag-royal-canadian-mounted-police","tag-thetyee-ca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}