It may not just be your ex who is creeping your Facebook page. Canada’s privacy commissioner says government agencies are collecting “personal information from social networking sites” that does not directly relate to government business. Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier outlined her concerns to Treasury Board Secretary Tony Clement in a letter obtained by CTV News that is dated Feb. 13. According to Bernier, not only collecting the information, but they are not taking steps to ensure its accuracy.
Last month we learned the Canadian government, for reasons still unknown, is making 1.2 million annual user data requests to telecom companies. Now it’s come out that it’s also stalking people on Facebook and Twitter, according to Canada’s privacy commissioner Chantal Bernier. In a February letter obtained by press this week, addressed to Treasury Board President and MP Tony Clement, Bernier wrote that the government is scooping up user data, possibly violating Canadian privacy law. The Privacy Act stipulates that data collection, even of public information, is off limits except on official government business. “It has come to my attention,” Bernier wrote, “an increasing number of government institutions are collecting publicly available personal information from social networking sites without any direct relation to a program or activity,” Bernier wrote.