Thanks for the question.
I think there is enormous concern about the kinds of disclosure we've seen. I should note that even that number of 1.2 million probably doesn't fully reflect the number of requests that are out there. As you know, that was a request that came out of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and the telecom companies refused to provide individual responses. They got some to respond, and that information was provided in an aggregate manner.
I think it is striking to see the difference even between Canada and the United States with respect to the transparency associated with these kinds of activities. In the United States there are large telecom companies, such as Verizon and AT&T, that are now issuing transparency reports that are disclosing in an aggregate manner what's happening. From a Canadian perspective, we don't see the same thing happening with our own telecom companies. Some of them have argued that they are inhibited from doing so for legal reasons. I think that ought to be addressed.
Similarly, from an individual perspective, the lack of notification in these instances is enormously problematic. In many instances it's not clear that there is a legal restriction, a gag order. There has been in some other legislation. There is not necessarily under PIPEDA a gag order in many of these instances. What is simply happening is that there is a refusal or a decision not to disclose these kinds of requests.
I would argue that in sensitive law enforcement cases, law enforcement can get the necessary warrant and order to ensure that there is no disclosure where they think that will cause harm, but in other instances it's wholly appropriate for the telecom company, or whatever the intermediary happens to be, to notify the subscriber or their customer that their information has been disclosed.