Policy addressing use of technology that mimics cell towers to receive signals has been in works since 2017 and is yet to be finalized
The RCMP in the Lower Mainland have continued to use a tool that allows investigators to track suspects based on the location of their cellphones, despite failing to finalize a policy on how to address significant privacy issues raised about the technology.
The federal police force has generally been tight-lipped about cell-site simulators , also known as international mobile subscriber identity catchers, or by the brand name Stingray. Use of the technology by the RCMP became public after the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner raised it in a report in September, 2017.
“In the authorization of a cell-site simulator, you’re collecting a whole host of information about individuals that aren’t part of the investigation; they just happen to be in the geographic area in which this device is operating,” said Bryan Short, digital-rights campaigner with OpenMedia, a non-partisan advocacy organization.
“The policy is expected to be finalized within this calendar year, at which time it can be shared,” she wrote on Jan. 24. Late last year, The Globe and Mail reported that the safeguards set up around using emerging technologies, including facial recognition, were underfunded and understaffed. The data also show a significant drop-off in deployment of the technology in the Lower Mainland after the 2017 interim policy was put into place.
Between Jan. 1, 2021, and March 18, 2021, the technology was used five times, according to the data, almost as many times as in 2018, 2019 and 2020 combined.
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