Is Canadian Credit Card And Online Activity Under Surveillance?

By: Gary Parkinson on October 11, 2013

Spying – the word itself invokes thoughts of secret observations and betrayals.  In Canada the word has long held little meaning in the minds of most ordinary citizens as the country was founded and remains powered by democratic freedoms for people which include the right to privacy.

As a result, many people were shocked over the last week to learn that Canada’s most secret intelligence gathering organization was spying on economic interests in Brazil, an important ally and trading partner.  In fact, many people were equally as shocked to learn that the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) even exists.

CSEC gathers intelligence by intercepting signals via electronic communications, and reports these findings to the Department of National Defence.  The information more or less remains extremely confidential as the Defence Department cites “national security” as the reason for keeping a cloud of secrecy around its intelligence gathering operations. 

In the Brazilian case, the monitored communications were primarily metadata from phone companies and internet providers, which allowed CSEC agents to collect entire histories of phone and email records from individuals or organizations connected to Canada’s economic interests in Brazil.

The revelations from the media raised questions from concerned Canadians across the country as to the moral and ethical rules governing CSEC.  Given the recent headlines of spying in the US, Canadians are rightfully concerned they are also being monitored by government agents.

John Adams, the former head of CSEC, gave an interview to the CBC earlier this week that part of CSEC’s mandate is to monitor foreign communications, including transmissions that come into or are in anyway related to Canada.  Adams stressed that the confines of the law restrict CSEC from monitoring Canadian phone, email, or credit card activity.

However in the same interview, Adams hinted that there could be loopholes in the law.  Many young, talented computer hackers are employed at CSEC, who are capable of breaching computer firewalls and breaking encryption codes to collect data.

The reality is if you're on the internet, you literally might as well be on the front page of the Globe and Mail.”

Adams also stated he supports greater Parliamentary oversight of CSEC.  He suggested that CSEC agents are “very biased towards the less the public knows the better” and that oversight from the Defence Department is not enough – CSEC should report its findings to all of Parliament to help ordinary Canadians understand how data is monitored.

Unfortunately for the government, Adams in many ways lit a fire from the concerns of ordinary citizens that government agents are capable of monitoring communications and credit card accounts of the people.

Earlier this year, former NSA analyst Edward Snowden leaked documents to the US media that agents were monitoring phone records of many Americans without sharing that information.  Snowden’s information suggested that the NSA also wanted to compile a database of credit card accounts and online activity to protect the country’s national security interests from domestic terrorists.

The two words national security have been thrown around by government agents as excuses for any increased oversight on both sides of the border ever since 9/11.  In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Americans and Canadians were asked to sacrifice a little privacy in the interests of increased security to prevent future attacks. 

But as the years stretched on, those sacrifices grew larger and larger until the NSA – and it would appear CSEC now monitor the comings and goings of any ordinary citizens without any warning whatsoever.

Security of the people is important, and many would argue that sacrificing privacy rights to prevent future attacks is worthwhile.  But Canadians deserve the right to know if their emails, their phone conversations, or their credit card purchases are under scrutiny from the government or an intelligence agency that reports to the government.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is “very concerned” about the details of this story, and vowed the government would follow up with CSEC agents.  But that answer in of itself is very cryptic, and actually raises more questions for Canadians.  Is Harper concerned that CSEC may in fact be monitoring its own people – or is he concerned that those secrets are about to come out?

Spying between countries has been accepted by people for decades.  Many people also accept, though perhaps do not fully support, that government agents likely monitor some form of communications over their own people – as is the case with the NSA.

Canadians often feel that as a democratically free nation that we are somehow insulated from the government oversight that runs rampant in other nations.  But the revelations and CSEC’s staunch defence of its practices only fuel the speculation that perhaps we are not as shielded from these practices as we wish to believe.

Until others like Adams come forward or CSEC is subjected to greater oversight, the questions will likely remain unanswered, and the disconnect between citizens and government spies will only lead to greater distrust and outrage towards many government agents. 

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