By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – The Public Interest Advocacy Center (PIAC) want the CRTC to clarify the rules and responsibilities telecom service providers have in regard to Covid-19 contact tracing applications.
The application refers to news reports that federal and provincial governments might have contacted TSPs to assist the health authorities to help control the spread of the virus.
For example, the Alberta Government has launched ABTraceTogether, an application which, through wireless Bluetooth technology, mobile contact tracing will complement the work of health-care workers and drastically speed up the current manual tracing process.
“Contact tracing is currently performed by interviewing patients who have tested positive for Covid-19, which is resource intensive and has limitations on its effectiveness as it relies on the patient’s memory. Through this mean Albertans will be contacted more quickly if they are at risk,” reads the Alberta Government press release.
“Protecting Albertans’ privacy is paramount. Use of the app is voluntary, and users must opt-in. Only your phone number is collected at the time of registering the app. The application does not track the user’s location and does not use your GPS. Data is only stored on the user’s phone in an encrypted format for 21 days only. Users must consent to sharing their data if they have tested positive for Covid-19,” explains the province.
The PIAC application asks the Commission “to clarify that TSPs must follow the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act, to require all TSPs to notify the Commission of any steps taken for any government or private interest to facilitate contact tracing and to make those steps public, and to demonstrate the Commission’s active oversight of this contentious area. PIAC believes the Commission’s oversight role is crucial and that absent leadership and dedication to the rule of law, that there is a risk of corporate and governmental intrusion via Canadians’ essential communications.”
While contact-tracing apps may well be outside of the realm of the CRTC (especially if not owned or operated by TSPs), PIAC argues “it is possible that many such apps rely for their utility upon user location tracking, that may only be available to the app due to location tracking methods provided by the mobile wireless (i.e., from WSPs) or (in the case of home WiFi use, or use in a WiFi zone out of the home) via the Internet (i.e., from ISPs),” continues the application.
PIAC also does not want to impede “public health contact-tracing for appropriate purposes of public health and that we do not take a position as to the appropriate constitutional or legal or policy limits of public health,” but it argues vigilance is required, since consent and especially prior consent that did not have a purpose within this scope, such as tracking your movement when you are shopping, be applicable to this instance.
Some apps include language that might be perceived to allow this practice but only for public alerting for purposes such as tornadoes or active shooters and were not clearly intended for such purpose.
“We are concerned about the lack of action by the CRTC thus far on many matters during the present epidemic.” – PIAC
Concerns about further use of data collected is another pf PIAC’s concerns. “Consumers and citizens have several legal, constitutional, ethical and democratically valid reasons for insisting that their TSPs protect their privacy to this degree: possible reduced civil liberties, the creation of Covid-19 databases and their use in policing and emergency response, and likely discriminatory use (against vulnerable or historically disadvantaged or oppressed groups and individuals) of tracking despite individual consent requirements,” the application reads.
“We are concerned about the lack of action by the CRTC thus far on many matters during the present epidemic, but in particular its seeming failure, or at least failure of transparency if the Commission instead is working behind the scenes, to vet and manage the developing and very serious matter of the interplay of Telecommunications Act and other privacy-related requirements within its area of jurisdiction and the contact-tracing movement and its attempted integration into public health and emergency management.”
When contacted by Cartt.ca and asked about whether or not the CRTC has spoken with Canadian TSPs over contact tracing apps, a commission spokesperson said in an email: “Commission staff have not been in contact with TSPs on this issue and as PIAC has announced, it has filed an application with the Commission. As it is an active file, Commission staff cannot comment on the application.”
