Rogers’ Transparency Report is step in the right direction for privacy

Report sets a positive example for other telecom giants, such as Bell, who prefer to leave their customers in the dark.

Responding to this morning’s publication by Rogers of its annual Transparency Report, OpenMedia’s digital rights specialist Laura Tribe had this to say:

“Transparency is a critical first step to ensure the privacy rights of all Canadians are respected. It’s encouraging to see Rogers provide more information than they have in previous years, particularly by setting out how many times they disclosed, or refused to disclose, their customers’ private information to the government. It’s also heartening to see the steep drop in ‘tower dump’ requests after Rogers and Telus successfully challenged this indiscriminate data collection tactic in court. We hope telecom providers take a similarly strong stance against the government’s use of Stingray surveillance devices to obtain their customers’ data.”

Tribe continued: “This type of reporting is essential if we are to shed light on the government’s attempts to obtain our private information. Rogers' report sets a positive example for other telecom giants, such as Bell, who do not even publish a transparency report and leave their customers in the dark. But there is still room for improvement - as independent research shows - and we hope that all providers continue to move toward increased transparency.”