The database includes detailed, but “de-identified,” information about people’s lives culled from conversations between police, social services, health workers, and more.
Police, social services, and health workers in Canada are using shared databases to track the behaviour of vulnerable people—including minors and people experiencing homelessness—with little oversight and often without consent.
Documents obtained by Motherboard from Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) through an access to information request show that at least two provinces—Ontario and Saskatchewan—maintain a “Risk-driven Tracking Database” that is used to amass highly sensitive information about people’s lives. Information in the database includes whether a person uses drugs, has been the victim of an assault, or lives in a “negative neighborhood.”
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WNU Editor: I live in Canada and I am stunned to be reading this. I know people in Montreal who are currently conducting pilot projects with its Police Department on how to use behavioural analytics and other recognition software to identify crimes in real time (I am providing some technical advice). From these projects I know that the rules/laws/and privacy protections in Canada are very extensive, and such a program would not be permitted. But apparently the police departments in two provinces have found a way to run such a database, and I am sure they are implementing policies based on the results of these programs. I will update this story when I get more information.
