Canada-U.S. Cross-Border Surveillance Negotiations Raise Constitutional and Human Rights Whirlwind under U.S. CLOUD Act

Privacy News
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The Citizen Lab reports that the U.S. and Canada are quietly negotiating a deal to expand law enforcement data-sharing under the U.S. CLOUD Act.

Since the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, Canada-U.S. relations have become increasingly strained and the subject of public concern. It should thus be of further concern to the public that, since 2022, the Canadian government has been quietly negotiating a bilateral law enforcement data-sharing agreement with the U.S. under a piece of U.S. legislation called the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (“CLOUD Act”).

Under this proposed agreement, U.S. Law enforcement officers can demand access to this data if this company offer any services to American users. Of course, it almost impossible for any Canadian company to not do so.

A Canada-U.S. CLOUD agreement would extend the reach of U.S. law enforcement into Canada’s digital terrain to an unprecedented extent. This agreement, if signed, would effectively allow U.S. police to demand personal data directly from any provider of an “electronic communication service” or “remote computing service” in Canada, so long as it had some ties to the U.S. (such as serving U.S. users). No judicial oversight whatsoever would be involved north of the border. The new system would expose personal data stored in Canada directly to U.S. police surveillance, bypassing Canadian court oversight, and in so doing, could violate our own constitutional privacy laws, among other alarming consequences.

The purpose of this agreement is ostensibly to streamline cross-border data requests currently governed by mutual legal assistance treaties, which public officials have said are now too cumbersome in the digital age. The arrangement is thus meant to grant reciprocal powers to Canadian police seeking data from U.S. technology companies. However, a closer look reveals that any such agreement would be reciprocal in name only, where our constitutional and human rights are concerned.

Are you afraid that similar agreements will be made in your country? My most sincere apologizes to our Canadian friends…

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Nation states won’t stop until we have full 1984 or China like surveillance, will they.

Fucking hell.

Is this not in contradiction to the orange man’s threat to remove Canada from 5 eyes?

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Threats are just threats, not a promise unfortunately.

In this article, the CIA is helping the government pressure the Canadians during trade negotiations .

Media reports are also surfacing that the CIA will “use espionage to give Trump extra leverage in his trade negotiations”.

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Yeah, threats are threats but if its not impossible, then it’s more plausible than not especially with a finicky administration you have now.

The point is that we never know - we should work toward removing the capacity or the ability for anyone to even threat. In other words, it should be impossible to make such threats.