Do you know your rights when it comes to your security?
We recently began a debate here in Canada over our rights when a fellow countryman returned back over the border and found that he was arrested as a result of denying a request to give up his mobile passphrase.
We hear a lot of grumblings from our neighbours to the south and most of us assume that we have similar rights while this is not the case. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is basically a collection of lawyers in the US who have fought tirelessly to maintain certain rights and freedoms and their work is needed now more than ever before.
Recently the US law makers came under pressure to renew portions of the Patriot Act after the Supreme court overturned the Nation Security Agency’s ability to unilaterally tap every call in and out of the country. Under the guise that if it doesn’t get renewed this could result in ‘failing to keep the American people safe and secure’. I mean we are talking about stopping the government from keeping a complete record of every call in and out of the country – is that really such a bad thing? The phone companies have had this for years – just get a court order and ask them.
Back in Canada we have the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) along with the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) and the Supreme court of Canada all rewriting section 8 of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In what is clearly a divided decision by everyone, the court has ruled in favour of law enforcement ability to obtain access to your electronic devices without a warrant.
For more information regarding your Canadian rights or any other portion of this story see our links below.
http://www.criminaltriallawyers.ca/?q=know-your-rights
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/11/cellphone-searches-canada-police_n_6308208.html
Security Analyst - Jeff Soehner CISSP, GXPN,GPYC,GMOB,GCIH 