Toronto police recently acquired controversial surveillance technology that sweeps up data on bystanders’ cellphones as well as that of criminal targets, but won’t say how many devices the service owns, when they were purchased, or how much they cost. A Toronto Police Service spokesperson says a nondisclosure agreement with the provider of the technology, known as IMSI catchers or “Stingrays,” prevents the force from releasing those details. Toronto police also did not provide answers to the Star’s questions on how the force will collect, store, access, or retain third-party data — the hundreds or thousands of citizens’ unique cellphone data that is swept up in addition to that of a criminal target — saying only that policies are still being developed, and will be in place before the device is used.The RCMP has operated IMSI catchers on behalf of municipal or regional forces, including Toronto’s. In 2018, three years after denying it had ever used IMSI catchers, Toronto police admitted to deploying the technology in five separate investigations, which ranged from a missing person case to a major drugs and guns bust. In the three cases for which details are known, Mounties operated the device.Now Toronto joins a short list of Canadian cities whose police own the surveillance technology outright, including Winnipeg and Calgary — a proliferation that worries privacy experts.“The more common these devices become, the more potential there is for something to go awry,” says Tamir Israel, staff lawyer at the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. The technology works by mimicking a cell tower, forcing all mobile devices within range to connect to it and capturing identifying data on each, including an International Mobile Subscriber Identity, or IMSI. Toronto police’s IMSI catcher does not capture private communications like phone calls, text message ...
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