A parliamentary committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to investigate allegations that the government has used what some call “spyware” against federal employees. The House of Commons ethics and privacy committee voted to hear the heads of several federal departments and Treasury Board head Anita Anand next month on the use of digital data recovery and
A parliamentary committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to investigate allegations that the government has used what some call “spyware” against federal employees.
The House of Commons ethics and privacy committee voted to hear the heads of several federal departments and Treasury Board head Anita Anand next month on the use of digital data recovery and investigative tools, as well as whether departments followed rules for doing a privacy impact review before implementing them.
Treasury Board is responsible for setting policies and procedures all government departments and employees have to follow.
The allegations stem from a November 30th report by Radio-Canada that “spyware normally associated with the intelligence world is being used by 13 federal departments and agencies.”
None of the departments did application privacy impact assessments on the tools as required by government policy, the news story says.
MP Mona Fortier, former Treasury Board president, who sits on the committee, said the government “is not here to spy on people and departments.
