Verizon not a threat to Canadian privacy, Moore says

Canada’s privacy laws would help ensure U.S. security agencies do not gain unfettered access to Canadians’ wireless communications if a large U.S. mobile provider like Verizon Communications Inc. entered the Canadian market, Industry Minister James Moore said. Moore, who plans to tour five Canadian cities this week to promote the government’s wireless policy, said in a telephone interview Monday that a Verizon market entry would not jeopardize Canadians’ privacy. “We of course always safeguard the privacy of Canadians and we’ll continue to do so under any hypothetical dynamic going forward,” Moore said. Reuters, citing four unnamed sources, reported on Friday that wireless incumbents BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. plan to attack Verizon over its connection to a U.S. government electronic spying program that has become public in recent weeks. Leaked U.S. court orders have tied Verizon, which is mulling a move into Canada's wireless market, to a U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) program that requires the company to turn over its customers’ home phone and wireless call records to the NSA. The incumbents launched campaigns in recent weeks that aim to change Industry Canada rules limiting them to a single block of “prime” spectrum in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction, while allowing other players, including Verizon, to acquire two out of four prime blocks in each region of the country. The companies’ plans to shift gears and focus on security and privacy concerns had not yet received final approval as of Friday, Reuters reported. Moore said Monday that Verizon would have to abide by Canadian privacy laws, like other wireless companies. “Our own guidelines and policies are different than those in the United States,” he said. “They’re firm, of course, and they will continue to be there to serve the interests of Canadian privacy.” Jessica Fletcher, Moore’s director of communications, said in a follow-up email that Canadian laws protecting private information “are among the strongest in the world.” “These laws are made clear under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) as well as the Privacy Act,” she said. PIPEDA, passed into law in 2000, includes legal requirements for companies that collect or distribute individuals’ private information, while the Privacy Act stipulates how governments can handle individuals’ information. Valerie Lawton, a spokeswoman in Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart’s office, said in an emailed statement Monday that Canadian data handled by service providers who operate in foreign countries “is subject to the laws of that country.” “This could mean, for instance, that the organization may be obliged to respond to a subpoena or other mechanism that would give law enforcement or officials access to personal information,” she said. Lawton noted that many Canadian telecom providers also send Internet data for processing in other countries, which could expose that data to foreign privacy laws and surveillance programs. “ur understanding is that, even if a Canadian is a customer of a Canadian-based telecommunications provider, an email sent to another Canadian address may be routed through the United States,” she said. U.S. government investigators, she added, can also currently request access to personal information in Canada through “information-sharing agreements, memoranda of understanding and mutual legal assistance treaty procedures.” Moore said he launched his current cross-country tour to counter the incumbents’ “big national ad campaign,” which has criticized the government’s wireless policy as favouring Verizon at the expense of the Canadian incumbents. He was in Saskatoon on Monday after visiting Vancouver last week and said he plans to stop in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and is attempting to schedule a tour date in Halifax. “There’s sort of been an un-level playing field about the debate that exists out there about telecommunications policy and we want to make sure Canadians know that in the midst of all this noise, at the core of it is a government public policy that will service the public interest by providing more choice, more competition,” Moore said. He said the incumbents’ argument that wireless policies unfairly favour large foreign players like Verizon are without merit. “If the rules are so biased and so unfair to the incumbents and so favourable to a foreign entrant, why is it that only Verizon has made noises about possibly coming to the Canadian market?” he said. Moore said the government’s wireless policy was not crafted to entice Verizon, specifically, to enter the Canadian market. He rejected incumbent claims that government representatives travelled to New York to court the leading U.S. carrier, which has 100 million wireless subscribers in that country. “It’s just simply not true,” he said of the suggestion. “Certainly that’s one of the elements of the noise that’s out that that’s not true.” As part of their campaigns, the incumbents have argued Industry Canada rules would allow Verizon, or another foreign entrant, access to the incumbents’ towers and would undermine Canadian investment. They also say it is unfair that a foreign competitor like Verizon can acquire new entrant carriers Wind Mobile (which is controlled by Globalive Wireless Management Corp. while Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd. has a non-controlling a 65 per cent equity share), and Mobilicity (owned by Dave Wireless Inc.), while the incumbents are barred from acquiring those smaller carriers or their spectrum under a five-year Industry Canada moratorium that expires next year. Moore said Industry Canada rules introduced in June to govern future transfers of Canadian wireless spectrum licences do not preclude the incumbents from acquiring the new entrants or their spectrum after the moratoriums expire. Under those rules, the industry minister can reject any transfer application that would result in an “undue concentration” of spectrum under one owner and affect competition. “I don’t pre-judge these things and we look at any potential arrangement on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “The health of the incumbents, where we’re going, what the pressures are: we will assess them all on a case-by-case basis.” In a letter Monday to Conservative MP David Sweet, chair of the House of Commons industry committee, NDP industry critic Chris Charlton said the committee should convene “extraordinary hearings” to consider Canada’s wireless policies in advance of a Sept. 17 deadline for applications to take part in the 700 MHz spectrum auction, which is scheduled to start in January. “Recent weeks and months have seen major industry and consumer players debating the future of this vital sector through the media,” the letter said. “Telecommunications policy is part of a fast-evolving context, with far-ranging and long term consequences that require thoughtful public attention. … This context merits an examination to ensure there is long-term competition and access to mobile services across Canada.” —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Verizon not a threat to Canadian privacy, Moore says

News | August 19, 2013

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Verizon not a threat to Canadian privacy, Moore says

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