According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), they don’t know the number of Canadians that were caught up in an illegal metadata program that operated for almost a decade. This interesting news came to us from The Star out of Toronto in their article, “CSIS doesn’t know how many Canadians were snared in unlawful data program.”
The Operational Data Analysis Centre (ODAC) stored associated data or metadata on individuals that posed no threat to Canada’s national security. In 2016, a Federal Court justice ruled the agency’s decision to keep that data indefinitely was unlawful.
Metadata can include highly sensitive information like geolocation data, phone calls made or received, and other personal information. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have long relied on metadata to reveal targets’ movement and networks.
Associated data does not reveal the purpose of the communication, nor the content, and does not identify personal details.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
