GATINEAU — The CRTC won’t open a proceeding to investigate the role and responsibilities of telecom service providers when it comes to contact-tracing applications currently being developed by government authorities to help in the fight against the spread of Covid-19.
In a letter Wednesday to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), the Commission said it would not give further consideration to PIAC’s Part 1 application filed on May 4. The Commission’s decision comes a day after Bell and Telus submitted letters to support a previous May 7th letter from Rogers which asked the Commission to dismiss PIAC’s application.
In its letter to PIAC, the Commission says TSPs are expected to adhere to the Telecommunications Act and other applicable Commission rules concerning protection of customer privacy. In addition, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation prohibits installation of computer programs on customers’ devices without their express consent. The CRTC assures PIAC that the Commission continuously monitors TSPs’ adherence to these and other legislative and regulatory requirements which fall within its authority. However, the CRTC also said some of the issues raised in PIAC’s application go beyond the Commission’s purview.
The Commission points out TSPs are not involved generally in development of third-party apps nor the downloading of such apps, other than providing the networks over which apps operate and the devices used to access the network and those applications are not regulated by the CRTC.
“According to the available information, the one contact tracing application to be released in a jurisdiction in Canada (Alberta) is voluntary to download and does not appear to rely on collecting data from the TSPs’ networks, but rather relies on Bluetooth technology. Other applications that are being proposed or developed by other governments and health authorities in an effort to manage the current health crisis appear to be modeled on the same voluntary- and Bluetooth-based approach,” reads the Commission’s letter.
The Commission also referenced the recent joint statement by federal, provincial and territorial privacy commissioners which outlines privacy principles for contact-tracing applications, as well as a previous framework issued in April by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), which also outlined key privacy principles to guide government institutions as they develop privacy-impactful initiatives to respond to the Covid-19 crisis.
“This situation and the efforts to contain and manage it continue to evolve. Commission staff will continue to closely monitor all relevant developments and, where appropriate, will send requests for information to TSPs with respect to this issue. As part of its monitoring efforts, Commission staff will maintain contact with staff from the OPC, the federal lead on privacy issues. However, there would appear to be no evidence that current privacy frameworks are not sufficient to address recent efforts or that initiating a public proceeding would be beneficial to Canadians at this time,” says the Commission’s letter to PIAC.
