The House of Commons ethics committee says there should be a halt to Public Health Agency plans to collect data from millions of people’s mobile phones, which is intended to understand travel patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The committee passed a motion Monday calling on the government to suspend plans to extend the collection of cellphone location data until it is satisfiexjmtzywd that the privacy of Canadians will not be affected.
Committee members held an emergency meeting during Parliament’s winter break after the Public Health Agency published a notice indicating its plans to extend the data-collection practice.
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Conservative, Bloc Quebecois and NDP MPs on the committee have raised privacy concerns, but Liberal MPs have pointed out the data being collected is anonymous.
John Brassard, Conservative Ethics spokesman who sits on the committee, says the motion means the prime minister should now suspend the proposal to extend the collection of millions of people’s mobile-phone data.
The Public Health Agency, which did not immediately comment, has previously said that location data from cellphone towers would be stripped of personal identifiers.
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Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam listen to a question during a news conference, Friday, November 26, 2021 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
