Last month Rogers released the company’s 2013 Transparency Report to reveal there were 175,000 data requests from authorities seeking customer info last year.
At the time, Rogers said they would ‘push back’ if requests were too broad and even go to court to protect customer data at the time, but did not disclose how many times those instances occurred.
In an update this morning, Rogers has updated their policy on how it handles giving out subscriber info to authorities, as now a court order or warrant will be required to get any information. The company sent us the following statement, which was also posted to their Redboard:
After hearing feedback from our customers and reviewing the Supreme Court ruling from last month, we’ve decided that from now on we will require a court order/warrant to provide basic customer information to law enforcement agencies, except in life threatening emergencies. We believe this move is better for our customers and that law enforcement agencies will still be able to protect the public.
What kind of info would Rogers hand out to authorities? Information would include things like payment history, billing records and call records. The company says by law they are required to keep customer billing history for seven years, but items such as text messages and emails are not kept.
Michael Geist says the change in policy was made to reflect the Supreme Court of Canada Spencer decision last month, which essentially voids the government’s Bill C-13 voluntary disclosure provisions.
