TORONTO – Rogers received 113,655 requests for customer data from federal agencies in 2014, down more than 61,000 from nearly 175,000 requests in 2013, the company disclosed Thursday in its second Transparency Report.
Rogers credited the decrease in requests to modifications that it made to its disclosure policy last June requiring a court order, warrant or equivalent (except in emergencies) for all requests. The company said that it made those changes in response to customer concerns and after further review of the Supreme Court ruling in the case of R v Spencer.
The report says that Rogers fully complies with Canadian privacy law and actively safeguards its customers’ information. At the same time, however, it is compelled by law to respond to federal, provincial and municipal government/law enforcement agencies when they have legally valid requests like search warrants or court orders. Rogers received requests from the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Canada Revenue Agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and provincial and municipal agencies like police forces and coroners.
“It is important for our customers to know that we only provide their information when required by law or in emergencies, after we have carefully reviewed the request. If we consider an order to be too broad, we push back and, if necessary, go to court to oppose the request”, reads the report’s introduction, signed by chief privacy officer Ken Engelhart. “One specific request we went to court to oppose would have involved over 30,000 Rogers customers, and we believed this was too broad. While the request was withdrawn, we are pursuing the matter in court to ensure our customers’ rights are protected in the future.”
According to the report, Rogers received a total of 113,655 requests for customer information, which it broke down as follows: 71,501 for court order/warrant; 2,315 for government requirement letter; 10,016 emergency requests from police; and 1 foreign request. Despite tightening its disclosure policy, Rogers also received 29,438 requests for customer name/address checks, and 384 child sexual exploitation assistance requests.
This year’s report also included the number of times that Rogers refused a request or where no customer information was provided (2,278), and the number of emergency requests from 911 operators (50,439).
