TORONTO —
Federal and Ontario privacy commissioners have concluded their review of the country’s new COVID-19 exposure notification app and say they support its use following initial privacy and security concerns.
Experts and lawmakers have been assessing privacy concerns associated with contact tracing apps in an effort to curb the spread of the virus, and commissioners say that the federally developed app has met all of their recommendations.
“Canadians can opt to use this technology knowing it includes very significant privacy protections,” says Daniel Therrien, Privacy Commissioner of Canada in a statement released Friday. “I will use it.”
The app is designed to notify users when they’ve been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
However, it does not track a user’s location itself, or use GPS.
Instead, the app produces random codes, and uses Bluetooth to ping other users’ phones and exchange these codes whenever two people who have the app are physically near one another. This means that if a person with the app reports that they have COVID-19, the app can send a notification to anyone who came close enough to that person to receive the specific code within the last 14 days.
According to the Government of Canada’s website page on the app, “nobody will get any information about you or the time you were near them.”
For months, privacy watchdogs have been sounding alarms regarding potential security risks associated with contact tracing apps, as other nations look for ways to curb new infections.
Privacy commissioners across Canada issued a joint statement in May advising their respective governments of key privacy principles needed to protect the identity of users and their data.
The use of the app is voluntary and commissioners say it has been developed with robust safeguards; however, they also noted the risk of third parties who may seek to compel the app’s users to disclose information.
The federal government has agreed to involve the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) in an audit of the app after it is up and running, though no official details have been announced. The audit will include an ongoing evaluation of the app’s effectiveness and security measures.
In the meantime, several Twitter users have pointed out that the app asks for far less access to a users’ phone and private data than apps such as Facebook and TikTok.
Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, wrote a blog post on Sunday explaining why he was in favour of the app — and why he himself had already downloaded it.
“The Canadian COVID Alert app is ultimately as notable for what it doesn’t do as for what it does,” Geist wrote. “The voluntary app does not collect personal information nor provide the government (or anyone else) with location information. The app merely runs in the background on an Apple or Android phone using bluetooth technology to identify other devices that come within 2 metres for a period of 15 minutes or more.”
He added that, “from a privacy perspective, this is very low risk.”
He said that he was persuaded to download the app onto his own phone by the privacy safeguards in combination with the public health benefits of having the app.
“The relative ineffectiveness of contact tracing apps elsewhere surely influenced the decision to adopt an exposure notification app which raises fewer privacy concerns and is more effective for its limited goal of notification rather than tracing,” he wrote.
Although experts are saying the app doesn’t raise privacy concerns itself, discussions between the OPC and federal government have pointed out broader issues related to the adequacy of Canada’s privacy laws.
A statement from the OPC asserts that given the app does not collect personal information, it is in the government’s view that the federal Privacy Act does not apply to the initiative.
“(I)t bears noting that an app, described worldwide as extremely privacy sensitive and the subject of reasoned concern for the future of democratic values, is defended by the Government of Canada as not subject to its privacy laws,” the OPC’s review report notes.
“This is again cause for modernizing our laws so that they effectively protect Canadian citizens.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
