TORONTO – After its first ever Transparency Report revealed that it received nearly 175,000 requests for customer data from federal agencies in 2013, Rogers said Wednesday that it is changing the way that it shares its customers’ private information and will require a court order before giving any information to the police or other government investigators.
In a post on its official blog RedBoard, Rogers said that the change comes in response to customer concerns and after further review of a Supreme Court ruling from last month. (Both Telus and TekSavvy have already said they will now require court orders before giving out customer data.)
Effective immediately “we will require a court order/warrant to provide basic customer information to law enforcement agencies, except in life threatening emergencies”, reads the post, which appears under an earlier Q&A with Rogers’ chief privacy officer Ken Engelhart. “We believe this move is better for our customers and that law enforcement agencies will still be able to protect the public.”
In the Q&A dated June 5, Engelhart said that when required by a court order or warrant, Rogers provides information like customers' payment history, billing records and call records to law enforcement and government departments like the Canada Border Services Agency and Canada Revenue Agency.
“In emergency requests we provide information like location information to find a missing person or contact information for someone who has called emergency services but may not be able to communicate”, he added. “We don’t look at or keep our customers’ communications like text messages and emails because our customers’ privacy is important to us.”
– Cartt.ca staff
