RCMP created metadata-crunching tool to glean criminal intelligence
OTTAWA — The RCMP created, then suddenly abandoned, a tool to crunch electronic message trails gathered during criminal investigations — a previously unknown foray into the controversial realm of big-data analysis.
The Mounties’ national intelligence co-ordination centre was operating the Telecommunications Analytical Platform, as the tool was known, as recently as mid-November, say internal RCMP notes obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act.
“The TAP is a platform that regroups copies of certain telecommunications metadata, which are lawfully collected by the RCMP and other Canadian police services in the course of criminal investigations,” the notes say.
Metadata is information associated with communications, but does not include the content of actual emails or phone calls. Still, privacy advocates say it can reveal much about a person and should be subject to strict handling procedures.