Canada's National Security and Intelligence Review Agency has found that the military's rules for gathering information about Canadians from the internet do not adequately deal with privacy risks, Global News reports. The watchdog accepted that the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are legally allowed to collect publicly available online material for intelligence work.
However, its review identified gaps in privacy protection and oversight. It said the military does not consistently record how each open-source search links to an approved operation or defence activity, and that its policies and records fail to show that collecting information on Canadians is necessary. The agency stressed that material being publicly accessible does not remove privacy concerns once government bodies gather and analyse it, and said Canadians must be able to trust that such collection has a clear and lawful purpose.
Source: Global News