Canadian police call for new law that would compel people to share their electronic passwords

Following the legal showdown we saw in the U.S. we saw between the FBI and Apple, Canada is about to have its own major privacy battle.

On Tuesday, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, a lobby group that represents the nation’s policing community, held a press conference in which it called for the federal government to establish a legal framework where Canadians would be required to share their electronic passwords during a police investigation.

Currently, there’s nothing in Canadian law, either on the federal or local level, to compel a person to share their password with police, even if they’re the subject of an active investigation. With more and more criminals relying on tools like consumer-focused tools like BBM and Signal to plan and execute crimes, police say they need new measures to keep up.

“The victims in the digital space are real,” said RCMP Assistant Commissioner Joe Oliver during the conference. “Canada’s law and policing capabilities must keep pace with the evolution of technology.”

The call to action comes as the federal government is set to hold a cybersecurity consultation which is set to conclude on October 15.

We’ve reached out to a Canadian privacy law expert to get their take on the proposal. We’ll update this post when they get back to us.

[source]Canadian Press[/source]