StatsCan uses surveillance company to monitor Canadians’ social media use

In the wake of the Trudeau Liberals’ new online harms bill, StatsCan’s utilization of a surveillance company has made a splash on social media. Bill C-63 An Act To Enact The Online Harms Act, passed its first reading in the House of Commons in February. The bill dictates that Canadians who might say something “harmful” or “hateful” online could be jailed. People have been voicing their disdain for the bill on Twitter ("X") and a link to a Statistics Canada page has been passed around that shows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has contracted a social media surveillance company called Meltwater. “If you've ever shared a dissenting opinion of the Trudeau government online you've probably wondered if your name is on a list somewhere” wrote podcaster Jason James. “Well, it is. A company called Meltwater is tracking your posts and then referencing your online profile against StatsCan data.”“Considering we have a bill passing through parliament that would allow the federal government to sentence you to a life prison term for ‘hate speech', I could see how the service Meltwater provides would be very useful in the future.”.According to the StatsCan website, Meltwater is a “social trends monitoring tool” used by the federal agency. Government officials conducted a PIA (Privacy Impact Assessment) and “did not identify any privacy risks that cannot be managed using existing safeguards” in employing Meltwater.“Statistics Canada will use Meltwater to search, monitor and analyze social media and traditional media trends and conversations on issues and topics relevant to Statistics Canada.”“Using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Meltwater performs searches of social and traditional media content based on specific search query keywords relevant to the agency's mandate, indexes the related information found and then presents the results to licensees accessing this tool.”“The results are then aggregated in summary reports and can be shared internally within the Agency, on a need-to-know basis. The use of Meltwater will allow the Agency to better understand current opinion, sentiment and overall conversation on specific Statistics Canada issues to create communications products that resonate with target audiences.”Meltwater scored “1” on the risk scale (with 1 being the lowest and 4 the highest) for the “type of program” it is, because it doesn’t “involve a decision about an identifiable individual.However, it ranks 4 on the risk scale for the “type of personal information involved and context,” described as “sensitive personal information, including detailed profiles, allegations or suspicions and bodily samples, for the context surrounding the personal information is particularly sensitive.”Meltwater was assessed to be varying levels of risk in a number of different areas. StatsCan specifies the personal information collected “is not for administrative purposes. Information is collected under the Statistics Act,” and “the personal information is used in a system that has connections to at least one other system.”“Monitoring of social media and traditional media environments has been a common practice at Statistics Canada for years,” wrote StatsCan on its website. “The use of Meltwater will make this practice more efficient and will directly support the Agency's desire to further engage with Canadians and translate data stories via social media, media relations, outreach and engagement activities.”“Daily reports on public sentiment will allow for immediate adjustments to our communication strategy in aid of collection. There will also be an update to the agency's social media terms of use to include a section detailing the use of social monitoring tools such as Meltwater..The federal agency assures Canadians on its website that “Meltwater will only access individuals' publicly-available personal information which is made available by the user through the social media accounts' privacy settings.”“Meltwater performs searches of social and traditional media content based on specific search query keywords relevant to the agency's mandate, indexes the related information found and then presents the results to licensees accessing this tool. The results are then aggregated in summary reports and can be shared internally within the agency, on a need-to-know basis.”StatsCan also published a caveat to its efforts to protect Canadians’ privacy. “Potential risk of Meltwater users being able to identify an individual by the information obtained such as their IP address, a picture or a chain of unique characters. It is not intended for Meltwater users to access IP addresses, pictures or videos.”“However, certain identifiable information may be visible to our select Meltwater users due to the nature and settings of an individual's account or social media platform.“Personal information accessed through the tool will be controlled through licences administered to only a select group of individuals on the social monitor and social media teams. Personal information accessed through the tool will only be disclosed on a need-to-know basis.”“There is a very low risk of an individual being identified by their IP address, pictures, videos or via a chain of unique characters in their messages. The impact on the institution would be low.”