Paper on Canadian ISP cooperation with law enforcement

An interesting read:

Updated: Business disclosure of personal information to law enforcement agencies: PIPEDA and the CNA letter of request protocol (PDF):

By Suzanne Morin with the assistance of Amy Awad and Dee Pham

Canadian Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) are continuing their strategy to deal with a subset of requests for customer information from law enforcement agencies requests that is of particular concern to them – those pertaining to online child exploitation investigations.

The initiative, where participating ISPs voluntarily disclose customer name and address linked to an IP address at a particular date and time to law enforcement at the pre-warrant stage of child exploitation investigations, remains interesting at a number of levels.

It touches on privacy issues pertaining to the proper interpretation of PIPEDA and the reasonable privacy expectations of ISPs’ customers. It also provides an ongoing example of a relatively successful voluntary collaboration between private business, law enforcement and privacy regulators aimed at tackling legal uncertainties where they may most negatively affect the public good.