And Daniel Therrien, who served as privacy commissioner from 2014 to 2022, confirmed that his office was not told about the secretive RCMP program, which hacked into 49 individual devices since 2017 while pursuing targets suspected of serious crimes like terrorism and murder.
READ MORE: RCMP has used spyware to access targets’ communications as far back as 2002: Senior Mountie
“I was surprised by the tool itself and how intrusive it was, it is, and that it was used for so long,” Therrien told the House of Commons Ethics committee Tuesday.
“Certainly there have been many discussions over the years … on the ‘lawful access’ issue. And both in my term as commissioner and when I was at the Department of Justice, I was following and part of these discussions. But the use of this particular tool to go around encryption? Yes, it was a surprise.”
The RCMP revealed to Parliament in June that it used what it called “on-device investigative tools” or ODITs — spyware that gives the force a range of surveillance techniques such as remotely listening in on device microphones or activating cameras, along with collecting data like text messages or emails. The force said this type of electronic monitoring happened 10 times between 2017 and 2018.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9047721/former-privacy-watchdog-surprised-rcmp-spyware-program/amp/
