Canada’s national police force is pushing for an invasive digital tool that would harvest data from a variety of online platforms, including the dark web, in an effort to ward off threats such as diseases and mass shootings.
According to Global News, the software would give the RCMP power to mine data about a citizen’s internet activities, from an emoji posted on social media to a firearm purchased illegally on the dark web.
“Social media and publicly available information will be used to identify threats and address public concerns,” the RCMP contract tender said.
The application is also marketed as having the ability to locate public-relations issues “and enhance strategic, operational and tactical information for improved decision-making in a crisis or major-event setting.”
The tender also states that the tool should include a dashboard with reports on breaking news, mass-casualty events, terrorist attacks, disease outbreaks, and natural disasters.
The initiative for such a tool is rooted in a tragedy that involved the fatal shootings of three police officers and the woundings of two others in Moncton, New Brunswick, six years ago.
It was reported that the RCMP needs to procure a real-time social-media monitoring tool to help identify risks while improving public communication, added Cpl. Caroline Duval, an RCMP spokeswoman.
“The police must keep pace with the emergence of new technologies to best serve their communities,” Duval said. “Social-media analysis can support public safety in a variety of ways.”
She added that the RCMP has already been using such information to detect threats to major events, infrastructure, and other locations. This sensitive information is said to have already helped pinpoint dangers to public figures and prevent suicides, school shootings and other criminal activity on social media.
But these invasive measures means the privacy of citizens would take a back seat in favor of security.
A Toronto activist concerned about the mining-industry abuses recently revealed that the Mounties had compiled a six-page profile of her just before showing up at a federal leaders debate during the 2015 election campaign.
Rachel Small, an organizer with the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, said it was “kind of creepy and unsettling” to see the RCMP profile, which only surfaced years later through an access-to-information request.
The new tool would complement the RCMP’s existing Social Studio software, which is utilized in a social media surveillance project known as Wide Awake that works by flagging key words to zero in on potential threats.
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