MPs grill federal departments over use of data extraction tools

Three federal institutions acknowledged not fulfilling a privacy directive when they appeared before the standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics on Tuesday.

The committee is looking into the federal government's use of tools capable of unlocking mobile phones and computers, even when protected by passwords or fingerprints, and accessing even encrypted data.

Shared Services Canada, the Competition Bureau and the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada all recognized they had been using these tools for several years without carrying out what is called a privacy impact assessment.

A federal directive requires such an assessment for new or substantially modified programs or activities involving the collection and handling of personal information.

«Frankly it's a best practice that we should have implemented and that's why we're doing one now,» said Scott Jones, president of Shared Services Canada.

The committee launched this study following reporting by Radio-Canada in November that revealed several departments didn't carry out privacy impact assessments before using the potentially intrusive tools.

«All of this could have been avoided, in my opinion, if these departments had just followed directives,» NDP MP Matthew Green said.

Those three departments explained that since their investigation programs have been in place for many years, they didn't believe such an assessment was necessary on the tools in question.

«The capacity of today's tools are very different,» said Bloc Québécois MP René Villemure. He also pointed out that mobile phones now contain much more personal data.

The MPs around the table did not dispute the necessity of certain departments resorting to using data extraction tools for