RCMP turns to data brokers
Experts raise alarm over police use of personal information
Andrew Mayeda and Gary Dimmock,
The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, September 30, 2006
Since September 2001, the Mounties have been buying and storing personal information from commercial data brokers, which have supplied information to U.S. authorities to fight terrorism.
Data brokers collect personal information from all kinds of sources, including warranty forms, credit-card use, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, travel-agency registrations and donations to charitable and religious groups.
Traditionally, the information is sold to third parties, usually marketers looking to target a consumer niche.
But some privacy experts question the accuracy of the data such companies provide.
And they say the RCMP's purchase and storage of such information raises questions about the reach of law enforcement agencies into the lives of Canadians, particularly in the wake of the damning Arar inquiry.
The public list of the contracts, beyond "business services," are not detailed. The contracts total more than $230,000 for the last two years.
*snip*
Mr. Hoofnagle's 2004 U.S. study, Big Brother's Little Helpers: How Choicepoint and Other Commercial Data Brokers Collect and Package Your Data for Law Enforcement, concluded that access to private sector databases has "significantly altered the balance of power between law enforcement and the individual" and revealed a "regulatory environment that has turned a blind eye to private sector collection of personal information."
No comments:
Post a Comment