In Canada, a New Surveillance Regime Would Threaten All Privacy

Ottawa would provide China, criminals the perfect hack for AI

​“C-22” just sounds like the name of something dangerous, and thanks to Canada, it is. The country’s government continues to push a privacy-busting measure of epic proportions. As we wrote in May, Bill C-22, “An Act respecting lawful access” to digital data, has the potential to – among a host of other transgressions – end encryption not only in Canada, but worldwide.

The proposal has had three readings in the House of Commons and last week received its first reading in the Canadian Senate. All of this, notes Thorin Klosowski of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has occurred in a complete absence of serious debate. In fact, the Conservative minority has accused the Liberal government of attempting to ram through the legislation through highly unusual and “undemocratic” methods.

This Lawful Access Act, as it’s also known, was recently scrutinized by The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Their findings read like that moment in a blockbuster when the horror-stricken protagonists flip through the pages of a diabolical secret plan, then look despairingly into the distance while the minor chords swell to a crescendo.

And with good reason.

The bill’s second part in particular is a pro-surveillance, anti-privacy juggernaut, which The Citizen Lab sums up as a “mix of open-ended powers, flexible safeguards, and a government-driven oversight framework that excludes strict judicial controls.” The net effect of this new regime will be to create “significant human rights, privacy, and cybersecurity hazards.”

What could possibly go wrong?

In an open letter urging C-22’s withdrawal, the Global Encryption Coalition zeroed in on the privacy Achilles heel that the legislation’s second part represents:

“There is no way to provide backdoor access to encrypted data and communications without compromising the privacy and security of millions of law-abiding citizens. This is particularly true in the wake of new AI systems that can autonomously scan software, find the vulnerabilities created by encryption backdoors, and write attacks to break in.”
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If ever there was a bill that deserves vigorous debate, says the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, this is it. Even worse, the damage to security and privacy caused by the Salt Typhoon should remind us that killing encryption would be a gift to China, as well as to common criminals.

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