But Commission won’t entertain issues related to merits of Covid contact-tracing apps
GATINEAU — After dismissing the Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s (PIAC) request in May for the CRTC to clarify the rules and responsibilities Canadian wireless carriers have regarding Covid-19 contact-tracing apps, the Commission has now decided to give further consideration to the issues raised in PIAC’s subsequent Part 1 application filed on September 9.
PIAC’s second application is not a re-submission of its first application, explains PIAC’s cover letter, which says it “seeks Commission guidance on privacy rules for potential government requests to TSPs to provide subscriber information associated with the use of Covid Alert, ABTraceTogether and any potential future similar tracing technologies.”
In a procedural letter today, the Commission says it received letters from Rogers Communications on September 11 and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) on September 17, both asking for PIAC’s application to be dismissed. “The Commission recognizes that the Part 1 application raises certain important concerns that fall within the scope of the [Telecommunications] Act. In this regard, one of the policy objectives set out in section 7 of the Act involves contributing to the protection of the privacy of persons,” reads the Commission’s letter, signed by CRTC secretary general Claude Doucet.
“Specifically, the Commission considers that the application raises certain policy concerns pertaining to TSPs’ role with regard to customers’ privacy that merit further consideration,” writes the Commission.
The letter notes that although PIAC’s application focuses on privacy issues related to the deployment of Covid-19 exposure notification apps, the application “requests regulatory measures that, if granted, would have implications beyond the specific context within which the application was filed,” writes the Commission.
The Regulator also says it’s concerned certain aspects of PIAC’s application appear to go beyond matters directly related to TSPs’ actions, which do not fall within the Commission’s regulatory purview under the Act.
“In light of the above, the Commission clarifies that, in the present proceeding, it will only consider matters subject to the Act, specifically (1) issues that pertain to the role of TSPs in the handling of confidential customer information; (2) issues relating to what information should qualify as confidential customer information; and (3) any resulting measures that should apply to the TSP’s collection, use and disclosure of that information. The Commission will not entertain issues nor consider interventions related to the merits of exposure notification applications nor of the handling of confidential customer information by parties other than TSPs.”
PIAC’s application is open for comments until November 27, after which PIAC will have 10 days to reply.
