JAY GOLDBERG: Bill C-22 threatens your privacy – and your wallet

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As if Canadians didn’t need another reason to be concerned with Bill C-22, the government’s so-called Lawful Access Act, news broke earlier this week that suggests the legislation not only represents a threat to consumers’ privacy, but also to their pocketbooks.

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The legislation would force select Canadian electronic service providers, including telecom companies, to upgrade their systems to have the ability to store consumers’ metadata for up to a year, among other measures.

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Upgrading these systems to meet the government’s requirements, according to telecom companies, will be extremely expensive.

Passing on costs

And, as we all know, companies don’t just take increased costs lying down. They pass those costs onto consumers. Even Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree admitted that certain companies “may need to pass on some cost,” although he argued that should not be across the board, and insisted large telecom providers should foot the bill themselves.

But Anandasangaree has to be kidding himself if he genuinely believes there will be cases where costs won’t be passed onto consumers.

Eric Smith, senior vice-president of the Canadian Telecommunications Association, whose group represents major telecom companies like Bell and Rogers, told the Toronto Star taxpayer money should be used to cover these increased costs.

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“Service providers are not looking to make money from these requirements; they are simply seeking reimbursement for the reasonable costs of providing [these] capabilities,” said Smith.

Translation? If taxpayer money doesn’t get allocated toward these costs, consumers should expect their bills to go up.

Even if the government does ultimately decide to allocate taxpayer money toward these efforts, Canadians will still be footing the bill to allow for their privacy rights to be put at risk.

Requiring companies to retain Canadians’ metadata for up to one year, which is at the heart of Bill C-22, would take a wrecking ball to private encrypted communication in Canada. Professor Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa explained precisely why retaining all of that metadata would be an expensive, and dangerous, enterprise.

“Retained at scale, that data amounts to a comprehensive surveillance map of virtually every Canadian, including where they go, when they go there, and who they communicate with.”

Canadians will literally be footing the bill for the government to require companies to track their comings and goings, as well as their communications, and keep that information for an entire year.

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And if anyone believes creating a back door to allow the government to gain “lawful access” to Canadians’ metadata won’t create a similar risk of opening up a back door for nefarious actors to gain access, they’re sorely mistaken.

Companies like Signal and various VPN providers have said they will leave Canada altogether rather than comply with the government’s legislation.

Flawed legislation

But for those massive telecom companies like Bell, Rogers, and Telus that dominate the Canadian marketplace, they would have to comply one way or the other. Compliance will increase costs for those companies, who will then in turn inevitably increase costs for consumers. That’s perhaps one reason why the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has warned that Bill C-22 “presents considerable risks to Canadian businesses, investment and the integrity of data systems.”

It’s high time for the government to recognize Bill C-22 is deeply flawed legislation. Requiring companies to retain Canadians’ metadata for an entire year threatens to both dramatically increase costs for Canadians and trample on our privacy rights.

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If the government wants to give law enforcement new tools, these tools must be carefully crafted and maintain a delicate balance between public safety and personal privacy. Bill C-22 falls well short of that goal.

The first thing that ought to be scrapped is the government’s plan to retain Canadians’ metadata for a year, which is an expensive and dangerous enterprise. From there, Anandasangaree should consult real experts like Geist as to how to find ways to empower law enforcement without risking Canadians’ privacy rights and driving companies out of the country entirely.

Jay Goldberg is the North American Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center

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