Versión Español
EspañolThe CBC reported this week that a Canadian federal spy agency tracked thousands of non-Canadian travelers by stealing information over the free WiFi network of a major Canadian airport.
Based on a document released by Edward Snowden, the CBC claimed that the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) collected data from the smartphones and laptops of passengers over a two week period. The CSEC then continued to track those individuals for over one week. Neither the Vancouver nor the Toronto airports gave the agency the data, furthered the report, prompting experts to state that this is “almost certainly illegal.”
CSEC solely collects foreign intelligence, and is forbidden from tracking Canadians without a warrant. A CSEC spokesperson cited foreign terrorist threats as the reason for the breach. The CSEC also stated it is only examining metadata, not the contents of what was collected.
This isn’t the first time the CSEC has been in hot water. When it applied for top-secret warrants last year to track communications of Canadians abroad, Canadian courts found it to be deliberately deceiving them by withholding key information.
Source: Toronto Star.
