The House of Commons Ethics Committee has said there should be a halt to plans by the Public Health Agency to collect data from the mobile phones of millions of people, which aims to understand the travel habits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The committee passed a motion on Monday calling on the government to suspend plans to expand the collection of cellphone location data until it is satisfied that the privacy of Canadians will not be affected.
Members of the committee held an emergency meeting during Parliament’s winter recess after the Public Health Agency issued a notice saying it intended to extend the data collection practice.
Conservative, Bloc and New Democrat MPs on the committee raised privacy concerns, but Liberal MPs stressed that the data collected is anonymous.
John Brassard, Conservative ethics spokesman who sits on the committee, said the motion means the Prime Minister should now suspend the proposal to expand the collection of mobile phone data from millions of people.
The Public Health Agency, which did not immediately comment, previously said cell tower location data would be stripped of personal identifiers.
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