David T. S. Fraser writes:
Victoria lawyer Michael Mulligan has an interesting opinion piece in today’s Victoria Times Colonist about the recent fuss over the city police’s disregard of privacy laws.
For those who are just tuning in, the Information and Privacy Commissioner recently did a review of the practice of automated license plate scanning. She found that the collection, retention and possible re-use of the data violated the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Local Sannich police stopped the practice. The Mayor of Victoria urged the police to follow the OIPC’s ruling, but the police board met in secret and decided to continue the practice.
Read more on Canadian Privacy Law Blog. It seems that law enforcement deciding that they can do what they want to despite the rule of law knows no national bounds. At least in Canada, the police seem to be upfront about it. Here, we have “secret laws” and may have no idea how we are being surveilled. They’re both unacceptable, but which is worse?