.:Computer Defense:.

Actually they want to know much more than that... They want to know everything you do online and they don't want to have to obtain a warrant to find out the information. An article posted not long ago on Canada.com tells us that the RCMP are pushing for the re-introduction of the "lawful access" law. This is the bill that was abandoned in 2005. A private members bill (C-416) has been put forward on this issue and the Conservatives are expected to introduce their own bill on the subject.

So here's the deal... should the RCMP or any law enforcement agency come across an IP Address during an investigation, and a time stamp related to the malicious activities, I believe they should have the right to obtain information on that person from the ISP. The RCMP sees things differently. This was the text of a note attached to a meeting briefing.

A lack of legislation to obtain (customer name and address information) has already had serious consequences for investigations and victims.

Had they stopped there, I'd fully agree. However the note went on to include, "obtaining subscriber information is essential not only to cybercrime investigations, but even general, "non-investigative" police duties". "Non-investigative police duties" that's where I draw the line... That's an invasion of my privacy and it essentially says, "We want to watch what you're doing for shits and giggles."

Right now, the RCMP needs a court warrant to access contact information related to an IP Address... the proposed bill would allow them to bypass the court warrant and access the information any time they wish. The same bill would require that ISPs build monitoring capabilities into their networks. Now I'm naive enough to believe that my ISP can't do that right now if they really wanted to, but for any government entity to have that available to them on demand... That frightens me.

Michael Geist (Law Bytes) blogged on the subject. While the entry was pretty much an overview, one of the comments interested me. The person suggested that this could be a sort of "honeypot surveillance". While they incorrectly used the term honeypot, the concept is interesting. What's to stop members of various law enforcement agencies, since they want this power for non-investigative purposes, from using this power to visitors to the NDP website or the Communist party website.

Introducing this concept under the guise of "public safety" is bullshit. It's something we have to stand up against. We need to fight for our right to privacy. Not that I'm out breaking the law... that's better left to 16 year olds and organized crime but I don't want people knowing how many hours a day I spend on Facebook, or that I read various political websites. That's what this concept would give them... the ability to watch every move we make, to become "big brother".

This is no longer about watching out for our safety and finding the bad guys... This is about controlling the population. This is bullshit and needs to be fought. There is no legitimate purpose for this. This is akin to entering someone's house because you want to know what they keep in their underwear drawer. Our laws protect us from this and they should protect us from the electronic form of this as well. Our judicial system exists to perform checks and balances... this proposal is requesting we cut out those checks and balances. That we give way to a form of police state.

Now I'll sit back and wait for the RCMP, the people who are supposed to protect me not seek to control me, to request that Canada ban encryption... after all it would make their lives a lot easier. Hell, let's just abandon the concept of innocent until proven guilty... Let's go with guilty until proven innocent and make the RCMP judge, jury and executioner. I hope that someone in government is intelligent enough (I know... I have astronomically high hopes) to realize that any move of this sort is a bad idea and to blow it out of the water.

Our national anthem contains the line, "God keep our land glorious and free!" I can see the change now.. All future versions of the song will go more along the lines of "God keep our land glorious and fr". That gunshot will be the RCMP attempting to repress our freedom.

IT, Personal