RCMP used invasive cellphone hacking tools 49 times, more than previously disclosed: document

The RCMP has made more frequent use of controversial cellphone spyware tools than it had previously told Parliament, according to documents obtained by Global News.

In June, the national police force revealed it had used “on-device intercept tools” or ODITs – spyware that allows cops to access text messages, a device’s microphone and camera, as well as other data – in 10 instances between 2017 and 2018.

But in a document filed with the House of Commons’ ethics committee Monday, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki admitted the number was higher – 32 investigations since 2017 targeting 49 individual devices. The committee voted Monday morning to speed up the publication of the document, but it has not yet been publicly posted.

“ODITs are used in extremely limited cases – only used for serious criminal offences and only if approved by a judge who explicitly authorizes the use of ODITs on a specific suspect’s device,” Lucki wrote.

“Their use is always targeted, time-limited, and never to conduct unwarranted or mass surveillance.”

Lucki’s letter does not explain the discrepancy between the information provided to Parliament in June and the revised numbers shared with the committee, which is scrutinizing the Mounties’ use of “device investigation tools.”

ODITs give RCMP investigators the ability to obtain “covert and remote” access to target cellphones or other electronic devices. Once covertly installed, these tools allow the RCMP to collect data such as text messages, audio recordings, photos, calendars, financial records – and even sounds picked up by the device’s microphones or images observed by cellphone cameras.

On Monday, federal Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne told the committee that the RCMP had not consulted his office about the use of the invasive technology – and that he only found out about it through media reports.

“Given this new technology, are the safeguards sufficient? Or do we have recommendations to make it safer from a privacy standpoint? These tools may well be needed, but do they have an impact from a privacy standpoint that is greater than what is warranted? … This is the central question,” Dufresne said.

Dufresne declined repeatedly to pronounce on that question until the RCMP briefs his office later this month.

But he said the Mounties had only conducted a “privacy impact assessment” – a routine report into new technology or investigative techniques’ potential to infringe Canadians’ privacy – in 2021, four years after the RCMP had been deploying the spyware.

The use of these kind of surveillance tools has been heavily criticized by civil society groups, press freedom organizations and by politicians. The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto has been particularly diligent in documenting the spyware’s use by authoritarian regimes and other bad actors in recent years to target journalists, activists and political figures.

Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert, a world-leading expert on surveillance technology, said Canada is sending a bad signal by allowing its national police force to quietly deploy invasive spyware.

“The Canadian government purports to protect human rights and stand for rule of law and democracy around the world. The non-public adoption of spyware (and other surveillance technology) runs directly contrary to those principles,” Deibert wrote in a submission to the committee reviewed by Global News.

“In adopting this technology, we are essentially telling authoritarian states – as well as our allies – that we do not care about these principles.”

The ethics committee is scheduled to hear from Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino later Monday, as well as senior representatives from the RCMP.

by Global News