Read on Twitter
This is a bombshell story by @bpcarney @TheTyee on RCMP social media surveillance & how internal docs reveal even greater deficit of accountability, transparency, & respect for privacy & free expression rights than we already thought. Highlights (1/x): https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/11/16/You-Have-Zero-Privacy-RCMP-Web-Spying/
The RCMP either lied to or misled @PrivacyPrivee in characterizing the nature and capabilities of Project Wide Awake, a social media surveillance program that ran secretly for 2+ years before @TheTyee / @bpcarney broke *that* story: https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/03/25/Project-Wide-Awake/
"A training slide for the project says: 'You have zero privacy anyway, get over it.'" 1) That's not how it works. Privacy rights are normative, not descriptive. 2) That is bad training. An orchard of apples *taught* to go bad. Wtf. 3) What was that about rebuilding public trust?
RCMP "[g]ained permission to hide sole-source contracts for Project Wide Awake from the public through a 'national security exception.'" Nat sec law/policy experts... please enter the chat? This seems like reversed I2E: "hoped-for evidence disguised as potential intelligence"
That sole-source contract went to Babel X, by Babel Street, whc you can read more about here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/gv7g3m/meet-babel-street-the-powerful-social-media-surveillance-used-by-police-secret-service-and-sports-stadiums and here: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/09/23/RCMP-US-Artificial-Intelligence-Firm-Spy-Users/
RCMP also "[h]as used a tool to unmask lists of 'friends' on Facebook for users that specifically set friends’ information to private on the platform." So freedom of association, just not a thing anymore? Cool cool cool.
It seems really troubling that "political protests" are listed under / conflated w/ "Darknet", whc is (also problematically) considered criminal. Esp equality-seeking protests, such as BLM and Indigenous rights mvts (wait--is that why natsec--b/c questions Cdn sovereignty? </s>)
Great commentary by my @citizenlab colleague @KateRobertson_, emphasizing that a) publicly available / "open-source" info is NOT fair game; b) these newly revealed tools go beyond that anyway; and c) @PrivacyPrivee [and @SCC_eng!] have said public != no reasonable privacy expctn
Also excellent point by @BJMcP @cancivlib: “It’s one thing to understand that an individual will see your passing communication, and quite another thing to assume that everything you’ve ever written will be subjected to an analysis by the state.”
While we're on the topic of collecting personal info from social media activity, you should all read @TeresaScassa's post here on the dangers of that (in the PIPEDA context, but points apply, esp in light of current reforms & techco-to-police data flows): http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=273
I'm only halfway through the article!! Just going to read now. But see @bpcarney's thread for more: https://twitter.com/bpcarney/status/1328228300221677570 And this one ( https://twitter.com/bpcarney/status/1328440300797194241) on Babel Street connection to US military buying location data, also from today: https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqm5x/us-military-location-data-xmode-locate-x (11/11)
Okay one more thing. *Every* single time I see another reference tying overtly rights-violating tech to science fiction (RCMP using "anti-mutant" project names from X-Men here, or Palantir and Anduril and their namesakes), w/o fail I think of these tweets from #RightsCon2018:
*Science fiction or fantasy, I suppose, before people come after me... (x/x)
