Airport eavesdropping plan alarms federal privacy watchdog
Sophisticated cameras and microphones will put passengers at the Ottawa airport under greater scrutiny than ever before.
Photograph by: Mike Carroccetto, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — The government is defending electronic eavesdropping on airport travellers’ conversations despite an accusation from the federal privacy watchdog that the move violates a government privacy-protection directive.
The Citizen reported Saturday that sections of the Ottawa airport have been secretly outfitted with audio recording equipment by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to monitor the conversations of international travellers and airport employees. New high-definition video cameras also are being installed, replacing older models.
Responding to opposition questions in the Commons Monday, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the equipment is part of the government’s response to smuggling and to airport security deficiencies identified by the royal commission that investigated the 1985 terrorist bombing of Air India Flight 182.
“The CBSA operates customs-controlled areas for screening international travellers arriving at airports across Canada, including monitoring video and audio in order to detect and prevent illegal smuggling,” he said.
“The privacy rights of law-abiding Canadians are respected at all times and the CBSA has strict parameters in place surrounding this program.”
Though the microphones have yet to be switched on, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is responding with alarm, saying the equipment has been installed without the CBSA completing a “privacy impact assessment,” (PIA) which Treasury Board requires government departments to undertake before instituting a measure with inherent privacy risks.
The privacy office reviews the assessments and can offer non-binding recommendations in a bid to ensure new measures conform with the Privacy Act.
“We’re surprised and we’re concerned by seeing that the process has not been followed,” Chantal Bernier, assistant privacy commissioner, said in an interview Monday.
“It is a bit presumptuous, isn’t it, to install the equipment before they did the privacy impact assessment. Treasury Board policy is that the privacy impact assessment should come for our review before the implementation of the measures precisely to ensure that we exercise the scrutiny necessary to ensure reconciliation between the policy objectives and privacy law.”
The office first learned of the surveillance plan in August 2011 in a consultation meeting with CBSA officials.
Bernier said her office “expressed concern” at the time, and never heard about the plan again until Saturday’s news report, said Bernier.
The CBSA, however, seems to have a different interpretation of those events.
“The CBSA consulted the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on the development of the CBSA Audio and Video Monitoring and Recording Policy and are working forward to implement all recommendations,” agency spokesman Luc Nadon said in a written statement Monday.
He said the agency expects to complete a privacy assessment by next year, but in the meantime the lack of one is not an impediment to installing the technology.
“While a completed PIA is not a requirement that prevents the CBSA from continuing with AV monitoring and recording, it will provide us with additional information concerning how we can strengthen current practices and continue to evolve our operations.”
It is not clear if the Ottawa microphones will remain off until the assessment is completed.
Once they are activated, signs will be posted referring passersby to a “privacy notice” on the CBSA website, and to a separate help line explaining how the recordings will be used, stored, disclosed and retained.
The CBSA says similar audio-video equipment has been operating at other Canadian airports and ports of entry for “many years,” though it won’t identify the locations.
“The recordings may become evidence to support seizures or prosecutions under the Customs Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Criminal Code. Recordings may also be used to substantiate or refute complaints made regarding officer conduct, including complaints filed under the Canadian Human Rights Act,” Nadon said in the statement.
A 2008 RCMP report said at least 58 crime groups were believed active at major airports, typically by corrupting airport employees or placing criminal associates in airport jobs to move narcotics and other contraband to and from planes.
“All recordings must be stored in accordance with specifications approved by the Security and Professional Standards Division of the CBSA — access is restricted. In addition, all requests for disclosure will be handled in accordance with the relevant privacy-related legislation and with existing CBSA policy on disclosure,” said Nadon.
Most recordings, are deleted after a minimum retention of 30 days, he said. Tapes and footage required for court actions, such as a drug seizure, are kept for a minimum of two years.
The CBSA has not explained why no privacy assessments were completed for the older audio-video installations, or why some form of explanatory privacy notice for the public appears to have been absent, too.
On Friday, the national head of the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU), representing about 45 CBSA employees at the Ottawa airport, said the national office had not been consulted about the move and was concerned personal workplace conversations and remarks could be captured and become part of employees’ official record.
A Public Safety official on Monday said a CIU Ontario official was, in fact, consulted earlier.
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