Post by ashliy on Nov 16, 2016 16:17:58 GMT
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has turned to two of the country’s top media outlets to make their case for new surveillance capabilities in what critics say is a PR play orchestrated to sow public worry about privacy-boosting technology.
Police in Canada have long pushed for broadened surveillance powers that would force people to unlock their phones, for example, or force telecommunication companies to provide real-time access to subscriber information. No such laws currently exist, but to show why the police believe they need them to do their jobs, the country’s federal force worked with two of Canada’s most respected media entities.
The RCMP gave the CBC’s David Seglins and the Toronto Star’s Robert Cribb security clearance to review the details of 10 “high priority” investigations—some of which are ongoing—that show how the police is running into investigative roadblocks on everything from locked devices to encrypted chat rooms to long waits for information. The Toronto Star’s headline describes the documents as “top-secret RCMP files.”
The information sharing was stage-managed, however. Instead of handing over case files directly to the journalists, the federal police provided vetted “detailed written case summaries,” according to a statement from Seglins and Cribb. These summaries “(formed) the basis of our reporting,” they said. The journalists were given additional information on background, and allowed to ask questions, according to the statement, but “many details were withheld.”
motherboard.vice.com/read/the-rcmp-is-using-the-media-to-create-moral-panic-about-encryption-cbc-toronto-star
Something to watch out for I believe.
Police in Canada have long pushed for broadened surveillance powers that would force people to unlock their phones, for example, or force telecommunication companies to provide real-time access to subscriber information. No such laws currently exist, but to show why the police believe they need them to do their jobs, the country’s federal force worked with two of Canada’s most respected media entities.
The RCMP gave the CBC’s David Seglins and the Toronto Star’s Robert Cribb security clearance to review the details of 10 “high priority” investigations—some of which are ongoing—that show how the police is running into investigative roadblocks on everything from locked devices to encrypted chat rooms to long waits for information. The Toronto Star’s headline describes the documents as “top-secret RCMP files.”
The information sharing was stage-managed, however. Instead of handing over case files directly to the journalists, the federal police provided vetted “detailed written case summaries,” according to a statement from Seglins and Cribb. These summaries “(formed) the basis of our reporting,” they said. The journalists were given additional information on background, and allowed to ask questions, according to the statement, but “many details were withheld.”
motherboard.vice.com/read/the-rcmp-is-using-the-media-to-create-moral-panic-about-encryption-cbc-toronto-star
Something to watch out for I believe.