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OTTAWA — The Home of Commons ethics committee is looking on the well being minister to clarify the Public Well being Company of Canada’s assortment of knowledge from hundreds of thousands of cellphones to know journey patterns in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Opposition MPs on the committee worry the pandemic is getting used to undermine the privateness of Canadians who weren’t conscious {that a} authorities company has been gathering mobile-phone knowledge.
Throughout an emergency assembly Thursday, the committee of MPs handed a movement asking Jean-Yves Duclos and Canada’s chief public well being officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, to seem earlier than it to reply questions on the coverage.
The Home continues to be on its winter break however 4 opposition MPs on the committee requested for an emergency session after the Public Well being Company revealed a discover indicating it plans to increase the data-collection apply.
Conservative, Bloc Quebecois and NDP MPs on the committee have raised considerations in regards to the privateness implications of the coverage.
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In December, the Public Well being Company issued a brand new request for proposals to trace countrywide cell tower-based location knowledge between Jan. 1, 2019 and Might 31, 2023.
The discover says the information have to be correct, accessible and well timed, in addition to making certain privateness and transparency. It have to be stripped of all figuring out data.
The request for proposals had been because of finish earlier than MPs returned to Parliament after their winter break however has now been prolonged till Feb. 4, stated John Brassard, Conservative ethics spokesman and a member of the committee.
Brassard has stated the gathering of knowledge by the Public Well being Company raises quite a few “pink flags” about privateness.
Addressing the committee on Thursday, he stated the Public Well being Company had been “gathering knowledge with out the data of Canadians, successfully doing it in secret.”
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“We have to know what safety measures had been in place to guard the privateness rights of Canadians,” he stated.
The Public Well being Company stated in an announcement that it had knowledgeable the privateness commissioner in regards to the course of, and has been suggested by its personal privateness and ethics consultants too.
“Minister Duclos has additionally been in communication with the Workplace of the Privateness Commissioner and has underlined PHAC’s ongoing dedication to defending and preserving the privateness of residents and other people in Canada whereas making certain that Canada has the information wanted to know and inform our ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the assertion stated.
Greg Fergus, a Liberal member of the privateness committee, stated that every one members of the committee agree it’s “vital to guard Canadians’ privateness rights.”
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However he stated that the knowledge was combination knowledge which had been “depersonalized so there isn’t a data that may determine people.”
“It’s unfair to say that we’re monitoring Canadians. That’s not in any respect the case,” Fergus informed the committee. “After we request depersonalized knowledge that can’t determine an individual it’s merely knowledge.”
The Public Well being Company stated that “by analyzing inhabitants motion knowledge, we will higher perceive the general public’s responsiveness to public-health directives.”
It stated that in December 2020, it established a “sole-source contract” with a telecom operator which expired in October 2021.
“PHAC is now launching a request for proposal course of as a method to proceed the gathering of this knowledge by an open and clear course of,” it stated in an announcement.
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Brassard final week wrote to the privateness commissioner, Daniel Therrien, to ask him to analyze the matter.
In an announcement, the commissioner’s workplace stated it had not opened a proper investigation. Nevertheless it stated, after receiving complaints alleging violations of privateness, it might “flip our consideration to the means chosen to deidentify the information mobility data.”
In 2020, the commissioner’s workplace revealed a doc about privateness and initiatives in response to COVID-19 which cautioned establishments to pay attention to the chance of reidentifying anonymized data.
The federal government didn’t ask the commissioner for particular recommendation about whether or not there have been “satisfactory safeguards in opposition to reidentification,” it stated.
“The federal government relied on different consultants to that finish, which is their prerogative,” the commissioner’s workplace stated.