Rogers says number of info requests fell 24% in 2015

Rogers Communications Inc. said in its third annual transparency report that it received 86,328 requests for customer information by government and law enforcement in 2015, a 24 per cent drop from the 113,655 it got in 2014. The company added in the report, released Thursday, that it either rejected or was unable to provide information in 2,457 of those cases. The vast majority, or 74,977, of those requests came in the form of court orders or warrants, while Rogers received 2,284 government requirement letters and 9,021 emergency requests from law enforcement. It received, and granted, 46 foreign requests — an increase from just one such case last year. Rogers also received 56,989 emergency responder requests from 911 services. The company said that it generally measures the number of requests by how many customers would be affected, with the exception of “tower dump” requests, which are calculated differently. Rogers said Wednesday that the most common type of tower dump requests is when law enforcement asks “for records from cell towers relating to the devices that connected to a tower at a certain time,” and noted that one of these requests—which ended up in court—would have involved 30,000 Rogers customers, “virtually all of whom would have had nothing to do with the investigation.” The report added: “We believe, and have already begun to notice, that the percentage of customers whose information is disclosed will continue to decline” due to guidelines issued by the courts this January as a result of that case. The company said tower dump requests make up less than 10 per cent of the total number of requests it receives. It added that it has also begun reducing the amount of customer information it provides in such cases. “Beginning in mid-2015, where possible, we began providing only phone numbers without the corresponding customer names and addresses in response to these requests,” it said. “When provided with a subsequently narrowed request, we provided the name and address info as required by law.”

Rogers says number of info requests fell 24% in 2015

Brief | May 19, 2016

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Rogers says number of info requests fell 24% in 2015

Brief | May 19, 2016

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