Government surveillance: Your explicit messages may be recorded and kept confidential for a century.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has come under scrutiny for its data collection practices in cases of online child sexual exploitation, following a revelation by the Quebec Court.
The RCMP's National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre (NCECC) handles a significant number of child pornography tips each year. In the 2023-2024 period, the centre received approximately 111,000 such tips, with the majority coming from an automated monitoring mechanism on major American platforms.
The data collected by the RCMP includes personal information such as a user's pseudonym, IP address, email address, and phone number, which are stored in a database called the Operational Network for Child Exploitation Analysis (OCEAN). This information is used to detect potentially illegal content, including messages exchanged in private discussions, thanks to AI technology.
However, the process has raised concerns about the extent of data stored by the police and the number of "false positives" included in the data. Around 70% of reports received in the country are "closed" without being forwarded to police forces for investigation. Even when it is determined that content was mistakenly flagged by AI, the RCMP catalogs all reports - photos and videos included - in its database for a century.
The retention of this data allows for the identification of unknown victims through correlation with other documented cases. The police forces justify the retention of data as crucial for detecting ongoing abuse situations and for intervening quickly when new victims are identified.
The case of a man accused of accessing juvenile pornography has highlighted these practices. The accused is seeking to exclude evidence, alleging a violation of his constitutional right to be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures. His lawyer is also seeking to declare certain articles of the federal legislative regime unconstitutional that allowed the collection of incriminating evidence against him.
Judge Julie Roy acknowledges that the use of AI by platforms leads to false reports, but finds that the safety of children justifies the continued retention of these data. However, Luc Lefebvre, co-founder of CQ, raises concerns about potential misuse of databases by a potential authoritarian government in Canada.
Lawyer Felix-Antoine Doyon intends to challenge this interpretation and the current legislative regime up to the Supreme Court if necessary. The issue of data privacy and its impact on civil liberties continues to be a topic of debate in the ongoing case.
