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Canada Privacy Databases Technology

Police In Canada Are Tracking People's 'Negative' Behavior In a 'Risk' Database (vice.com) 207

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Police, social services, and health workers in Canada are using shared databases to track the behavior of vulnerable people -- including minors and people experiencing homelessness -- with little oversight and often without consent. Documents obtained by Motherboard from Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) through an access to information request show that at least two provinces -- Ontario and Saskatchewan -- maintain a "Risk-driven Tracking Database" that is used to amass highly sensitive information about people's lives. Information in the database includes whether a person uses drugs, has been the victim of an assault, or lives in a "negative neighborhood."

The Risk-driven Tracking Database (RTD) is part of a collaborative approach to policing called the Hub model that partners cops, school staff, social workers, health care workers, and the provincial government. Information about people believed to be "at risk" of becoming criminals or victims of harm is shared between civilian agencies and police and is added to the database when a person is being evaluated for a rapid intervention intended to lower their risk levels. Interventions can range from a door knock and a chat to forced hospitalization or arrest. Data from the RTD is analyzed to identify trends -- for example, a spike in drug use in a particular area -- with the goal of producing planning data to deploy resources effectively, and create "community profiles" that could accelerate interventions under the Hub model, according to a 2015 Public Safety Canada report.
Saskatchewan and Ontario officials say the data in the database is "de-identified" by removing details such as people's names and birthdates, but experts Motherboard spoke to say that scrubbing data so it may never be used to identify an individual is difficult if not impossible.
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Police In Canada Are Tracking People's 'Negative' Behavior In a 'Risk' Database

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @10:36PM (#58192052)

    Is that yet another newspeak term?

    And who the FUCK is shocked/surprised over people keeping all kinds of databases? Like every single male geek, I have a database myself keeping track of every single person I've ever met, plotting their current house positions on a map and showing all kinds of stats such as whether they're married, living together with other people, etc. I use it for my personal use only, and it's been very enlightening and depressing...

  • Incoherent (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @10:43PM (#58192074)

    Information in the database includes whether a person uses drugs, has been the victim of an assault, or lives in a "negative neighborhood." ...information about people believed to be "at risk" of becoming criminals or victims of harm is shared between civilian agencies and police and is added to the database when a person is being evaluated for a rapid intervention intended to lower their risk levels. Interventions can range from a door knock and a chat to forced hospitalization or arrest.

    Saskatchewan and Ontario officials say the data in the database is "de-identified" by removing details such as poeple's names and birthdates

    Which is it then?

    What are they going to do, forcefully hospitalize or arrest a statistical de-identified person.

    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Not at this stage of societal control. Many of the Western countries are directionally aligned with China on this one, but are reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally far behind.

    • by Kjella ( 173770 )

      Which is it then? What are they going to do, forcefully hospitalize or arrest a statistical de-identified person.

      De-identified data, unlike actually anonymous data just means they have a box that strips the data of identifiers and usually assigns it an alias so they can add more data later. There's two risks:

      1) That you are recognizable in the data by someone who knows part of the information already. For example imagine cell phone location data compared against your Facebook/Instagram posts or simply real life comings and goings. Very soon it would narrow down to just you matching that exact pattern. In this case it

  • but in the states crap like this is used for probable cause so they can get away with stop and frisk crap, which is in turn used as a general form of oppression. It's hard to imagine the friendly Canadians doing that crap like we do, but it's a big country.
    • by Mashiki ( 184564 ) <mashiki@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @11:27PM (#58192238) Homepage

      Stop and Frisk in Toronto was one of the main drivers of crime downwards. Since Toronto stopped this in high crime areas, the crime rates are screeching ever higher now. Even went as high as the Supreme Court of Canada, that ruled that in particular circumstances such as high crime areas, it's an allowable behavior. It is a form of oppression, but here's what's weighted by the courts: "Does the action create a positive or negative effect for the community." This is weighted as societies rights to be safe vs the rights of the individual. This is a broader action then "detaining any 'close to' suspects in the case of an indictable offence(felony)." To give you another example, in Canada RIDE programs(anti-drunk driving) are a fundamental charter violation and an illegal search. The courts specifically stated that the rights of society to not be hit, injured or killed by the offender or possible offender outweigh the fundamentally guaranteed rights against an unlawful search.

      Now to the article at hand, the entire premise of this is based on crime reduction. Let me give you an example, if you're living in Toronto(Ontario) you're more likely to be shot or stabbed then 10 years ago. Crime is a serious issue, more so that there are areas that are degenerating into ghettos ala the US type. In Regina(Saskatchewan), there are entire parts of the city that are ghettos. Crime is staggeringly high(for Canada), it revolves around a single group of people in most cases(aboriginals), this is similar in the US where cities have serious black crime problems in particular areas for example. Regina for instance, has(or had) the highest rape and murder rate in Canada with Winnipeg(Manitoba) catching up second or Toronto. In Winnipeg's case, similar problems similar groups of people, with similar issues leading to generational crime for instance. I.e. broken homes, no fathers, poor education, heavy substance abuse, etc.

      Enjoy the shit show.

      • >"Stop and Frisk in Toronto was one of the main drivers of crime downwards. Since Toronto stopped this in high crime areas, the crime rates are screeching ever higher now."

        Freedom and safety are often at odds with each other. To me, "stop and frisk" is a vile abuse of government power and a violation of essential civil liberties. Sure, it might be effective at reducing crime, but there is a big cost that comes with it... one that I hope people aren't willing to pay.

        • by Mashiki ( 184564 ) <mashiki@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Thursday February 28, 2019 @12:13AM (#58192364) Homepage

          Sure, it might be effective at reducing crime, but there is a big cost that comes with it... one that I hope people aren't willing to pay.

          That depends. Do you live in a country with no right to own a firearm, and self defense is heavily restricted? In turn your only real protection comes from the state, acting as a medium between the various facets of society. I get your reasoning, in the US for example castle laws exist. They don't in Canada, and there are places in Canada where police aren't minutes away they can be half a day or more away.

          • by froggyjojodaddy ( 5025059 ) on Thursday February 28, 2019 @08:07AM (#58193126)
            I wish I could mod you up but I've already commented here :(

            If you're a victim of a crime or about to become one, I wish you luck if your recourse is waiting for the cops to arrive and save you. Especially in Canadian winter when the roads are bad and people forget how to drive.

            In Canada, if you're about to get robbed, the cops will NOT be there to save you. And they won't even really be motivated to investigate afterwards.
          • by skam240 ( 789197 )

            Wait, large scale gun ownership makes a society safer? So why do we have the highest homicide rate in the first world by over 2 times the next closest country?

            Violations of personal freedom like stop and frisk and are even more necessary when there are guns all over the place. The effect it had on New York's crime rate helps illustrate this.

            • So why do we have the highest homicide rate in the first world by over 2 times the next closest country?

              Gangs.

              Largest by far percent of gun violence is gangs with handguns shooting each other. Next is suicide.

              The chances of you getting involved with a shooting by the majority of legal gun owners is less than you dying in a car accident.

              I for one, like to have the option to protect myself.

              • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                "Gangs.

                Largest by far percent of gun violence is gangs with handguns shooting each other. Next is suicide."

                There are plenty of gangs in every first world nation, they just have a much harder time getting guns because guns are much rarer.

                "The chances of you getting involved with a shooting by the majority of legal gun owners is less than you dying in a car accident."

                Absolutely. Where do the guns come from that are illegally owned though? Are there illegal gun factories in the US pumping out black market guns

                • Absolutely. Where do the guns come from that are illegally owned though? Are there illegal gun factories in the US pumping out black market guns? No, they are all legally manufactured in the US and legally sold to distributors or direct to vendors in the US. Only afterwards do they end up illegally owned. In other words, we have so many people who own guns illegally precisely because of our mass legal gun ownership.

                  I for one like the idea of living in country where, generally speaking, the worst a mugger

                  • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                    You're putting words in my mouth, I have advocated for nothing. I have only pointed to the source of our homicide problem.

                  • by dryeo ( 100693 )

                    Yet cars are highly regulated. All kinds of safety features required. Other requirements such as good tires required on the road. Licenses needed.
                    Cops everywhere enforcing the various rules of the road.
                    Meanwhile simple safety features like a safety or requiring x ounces of pressure on the trigger to fire the weapon seem to be a no go in the States as if requiring a safety infringes rights unreasonably.

                    • Yet cars are highly regulated. All kinds of safety features required. Other requirements such as good tires required on the road. Licenses needed.

                      Cops everywhere enforcing the various rules of the road.

                      Meanwhile simple safety features like a safety or requiring x ounces of pressure on the trigger to fire the weapon seem to be a no go in the States as if requiring a safety infringes rights unreasonably.

                      1. Guns are HIGHLY regulated, don't kid yourself there. Guns pass rigorous testing to make sure they a

                    • by dryeo ( 100693 )

                      Good to hear, as others on this site have stated otherwise.

              • ^ This guy/girl.

                Ontario is currently in the midst of a full-on war against firearms because of shootings in Toronto. The gov't wants to ban handguns and have stirred up the population right good.

                Never mind the fact that NO legal, licensed firearm owner has been responsible for the shootings. They're all done by criminals gangs who got their hands on illegal firearms.
                • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                  Where do you think illegally owned guns come from? They were all legal at some point.

                  Less legal guns mean less guns that can illegally make their way into criminal's hands.

                  • They come from the US or having been burgled from homes. Your rationale is the epitome of slippery slope reasoning - by your logic, cars should become illegal because despite being legal the vast majority of the time, they have been used in crimes and therefore the less cars being sold, the less will be used to commit crime.
                    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      "Your rationale is the epitome of slippery slope reasoning - by your logic, cars should become illegal because despite being legal the vast majority of the time, they have been used in crimes and therefore the less cars being sold, the less will be used to commit crime."

                      That's not by my logic at all, the only slippery slope here is being provided by you. Guns have a single practical function and that is to kill something and in most cases that something is people (hunting rifles being the exception). Spinni

                    • Guns have a single practical function and that is to kill something

                      Except, you know, for the fact that the overwhelming majority of legal, licensed civilian gun owners in Canada have never so much as harmed another person with a gun, despite having collectively shot more than 15 million rounds. That's 15 million projectiles that could have easily killed a person, yet didn't.

                    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      And yet every single illegally owned fire arm started off as legal so segregating legally owned guns into their own statistic is meaningless.

                    • Every single car used in a crime started out not being used in the commission of a crime.
                    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      Oh, back to cars. Perhaps I didn't elaborate enough on that point the first time you brought them up. A gun's only purpose is to kill something and in most cases that something is people where as a car is built to move people around. Banning guns for doing what they are designed to do is a completely different conversation from banning a car which is widely used for constructive purposes.

                    • A gun's only purpose is to kill something and in most cases that something is people

                      Well, since the overwhelming majority of guns and bullets owned by Canadian civilians have not actually killed a person, it would seem that they are extremely poorly designed for that purpose, would you agree? I mean, there's 15 MILLION firearms in Canada with just over 2.2 million licensed firearm owners. That means each gun owner has around 7 guns on average.

                      The way you portray it, 15 million firearms in a country of only 37 million should mean an extraordinary number of deaths per yer. If a gu

                    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      This is great. First you falsely accuse me of slippery slope reasoning while you literally engage in the act. Then you try to cherry pick your data by only talking about legally owned guns. After that you revisit your own slippery slope of "if guns, why not cars" and now you're accusing me of exaggerating the scale of gun violence and scare mongering when the only extent to which I have even come close to commenting on gun violence is to point out that the US' homicide rate (not even gun violence rate) is t

                    • by only talking about legally owned guns

                      My ENTIRE position has been that punishing legal, licensed firearm owners for the actions committed by illegal, unlicensed criminals is both unfair and ineffective as a policy. So you shouldn't really be surprised that my stats cover legal firearms owners..

                      You seem adamant to push your agenda so there's likely no rational explanation that would convince you to re-assess your position so I'll attempt to clarify one last time:

                      1. Person passes driving test and gets a license. Person buys car. Car is

                    • *Spelling corrections* 2. Person passes firearms test and gets a license. Person buys firearm. Firearm is stolen. Firearm is used in a crime. Firearms are not generally used to commit crimes (refer back to my statistics). Therefore firearms should not be banned but people using them for illegal purposes should be prosecuted.
                    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      "My ENTIRE position has been that punishing legal, licensed firearm owners for the actions committed by illegal, unlicensed criminals is both unfair and ineffective as a policy. So you shouldn't really be surprised that my stats cover legal firearms owners.. "

                      There are plenty of dangerous things that are outlawed or heavily restricted by government. It's not "punishing" anyone.

                      "1. Person passes driving test and gets a license. Person buys car. Car is stolen. Car is used in a crime. Cars are not generally us

                    • There are plenty of dangerous things that are outlawed or heavily restricted by government. It's not "punishing" anyone.

                      If you curtail the ability of someone to pursue something they're interested in, and that person is in no way harming anyone else, then of course you're punishing them. You're taking what is otherwise a lawful, legal right and taking it away because someone else did something.

                      Guns on the other hand don't have any other use aside from shooting a person

                      Back to this....More than 15 million guns in Canada and over 100 million rounds expended and not a single person shot. I think that would tell you that the vast majority of gun owners in Canada use their firearms for putting nice l

            • The reason we have the 2nd highest homicide rate in the first world (I'm assuming you're correct about that) has to do with demographics. We have a historically first world European society that prior to the 70s was 90% European heritage but is rapidly being replaced. Ignore wealth and control simply by percentage of each peoples and I think the reasons for this will be very clear.
        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          Don't lie, do not call it stop and frisk, call it was it is, illegal detention and sexual assault, as a SLAVE, refusal will be severly punished, with, far more violent assault, kidnapping and extended detention, with sexual assault.

          THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT SLAVES, not bloody citizens.

          • Whoa, whoa ..... just... whoa. I'm from a visible ethnic minority and have been stopped a few times while minding my own business. The first few times, it was really annoying but the cops were super polite and very clear on what they were doing. I was polite back, they asked a few questions (e.g. "Are you carrying a weapon, how's your day going so far etc) but never actually searched me.

            Was I so offended that I considered that illegal detention? Of course not. Put it in perspective dude/dudette. I
            • by apoc.famine ( 621563 ) <apoc.famine@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Thursday February 28, 2019 @10:23AM (#58193742) Journal

              Now, on the other hand, if a cop stops you in the street and starts asking you questions and your first reaction is to get uber-defensive and maybe even confrontational, then I'm sorry to say but in my eyes, you're the problem.

              And in my eyes, if you don't do this, you're the problem.

              Normalizing a police state is not what we should be doing. I am not ok with "papers please". A police state never ends well for its citizens. Given that here in the US police shoot non-armed individuals all the time, yeah, I'm fucking going to be on the defensive if some try to stop me. There's a non-zero chance that they will kill me. In fact, it's about as likely that they will kill me as an actual criminal would.

              1. I am from a visible ethnic minority that is responsible for some not-insignificant portion of crime
              2. My minority group also generally falls into the lower income bracket
              3. It is statistically more probable that a member from my ethnic group will commit a violent crime compared to Caucasian or other groups

              And the answer to none of those problems is police action. Those are 100% social issues, and need to be addressed with social change. Cops stopping you and potentially killing you does not solve those issues.

              4. If I'm stopped and even searched by someone who is polite and has the welfare of MY community at heart, I welcome it

              In what fantasy world do cops have the wellfare of your community at heart? Stop and frisk is the opposite of that. It's a tool of authoritarian repression and discrimination. It does nothing to solve the root issues of the problem, and everything to propagate them. You are far less likely to be carrying drugs than a white person, but you are far more likely to get stopped, searched, possibly killed, and sent to jail if you're not. Killing and jailing the men of minority populations does not make crime better or reduce poverty within those populations. It does exactly the opposite.

              • I'll just say this, my experience with cops must be vastly different to yours for us to have such polarizing opinions
                • ^ this.

                  Really I know it's trendy to pick on cops but most of them really do have the welfare of the community at heart. Are there exceptions? Of course. But they are just that... exceptions.

                  Source: Know lots of cops, mostly professionally but some personally as well.

              • by Talonius ( 97106 )

                "Stop and frisk." Here's a thought for those of you in favor of this: I'm a type 1 diabetic, I carry a syringe and a bottle of insulin in my pocket. Want to guess how many times I've gone to jail for drug paraphernalia? Three.

                Twice they've thrown the insulin out (Apidra, costly) because the prescription's on the box, not the bottle.

                Fuck you, and the police, if you support that kind of bullshit.

        • I agree, mostly. Freedom and safety are often at odds. I disagree that "stop and frisk" is a vile abuse of gov't power. It's an unfortunate action but maybe a necessary one. I know someone, somewhere is going to trot out the old, "If you sacrifice liberty for safety, you deserve neither" line but c'mon. A minutes inconvenience (if that, even) is not depriving you of your liberty, unless you decide to escalate the issue.
          • A minutes inconvenience (if that, even) is not depriving you of your liberty, unless you decide to escalate the issue.

            It is, actually. At least for those few minutes. And the real metric to measure this by is not the few minutes they're claiming on average from those who meekly fall in line, but rather the amount of force they feel justified in using against those who do not.

            • Let's agree to disagree, I suppose. If a cop stops me and asks how my day is going and if I'm carrying a weapon and I say, "Going good, no, I'm not carrying a weapon" and then we talk about the cold weather for 30 seconds, I personally don't feel that's a violation of my human rights.

              That may not be true for you, and that's OK.
              • Stop-and-frisk is more than just asking questions, it is laying hands on the person. Questions are bad enough, themselves, if there is no probable cause. There needs to be a presumption of innocence. At least in the USA....

                Now, you might feel it is a violation of your rights... and that is fine/OK (just like you said). But it is not OK if one then extends what one feels is OK for themselves to what should be allowed regardinging other people. I don't feel that way, and my point of view is supposedly ba

          • by Wulf2k ( 4703573 )

            It is literally depriving them of their liberty to leave.

            What if you're running late for an important appointment, and the cop's having a bad day? Maybe he decides to stretch it out because you didn't show him the proper respect.

            Sorry, we're gonna need the drug dogs to come due to your suspicious behaviour. That'll be 30 minutes. Maybe an hour.

            Oh geez, the dogs signaled. I'm gonna need to perform a cavity search.

            Are you resisting me?

            Hands behind your back.

            • Could that happen? Sure. You could also get into a terrible car accident on the way to work. Or maybe your car battery dies unexpectedly. Or maybe even there's a freak storm and you get 2 feet of snow in an hour.

              I'm my entire life, I've been stopped maybe 8 times by a cop and 100% of them have been polite and courteous. Maybe I'm an anomaly. Maybe it's Canadian cops. Or maybe I've just been extraordinarily lucky and only the nice, honest cops have stopped me.

              I fear there's a lot of pearl clutch
              • by Wulf2k ( 4703573 )

                Sure, you could get into a car accident. But nobody has the power to guarantee you get into a car accident without repercussions.

                Humans are humans, and they'll do humany things.

                By giving cops these powers, we are guaranteeing they will be abused. Not in every situation, not by every cop, but if a power exists, it's only a matter of time until it IS abused.

                I'm glad you've only run into nice cops. You know what? So have I.

                But there mere fact that these powers exist means that everybody's ok with the most

        • ... one that I hope people aren't willing to pay.

          This kind of thinking depends heavily on where you live. A happy liberal in a white suburb values individual freedom much more than a poor liberal in a ghetto. It's always easy to talk about individual freedom when you're not the one getting shot.

          That's not to diminish your position; freedom is in some way a cornerstone of a solid and strong society. But freedom means different things in different situations. I value the freedom from violence, abuse, and robbery, higher than individual freedom, as the form

          • by Wulf2k ( 4703573 )

            But losing one freedom never gets you the other freedom, you've simply lost multiple freedoms.

            • >"But losing one freedom never gets you the other freedom, you've simply lost multiple freedoms."

              +1 insightful

      • by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

        Serious question: If the problem revolves mostly around aboriginals, what changed starting 10 years ago in their overall lives?

        One should think that shouldn't be too hard to determine...

      • by Can'tNot ( 5553824 ) on Thursday February 28, 2019 @02:14AM (#58192562)

        Stop and Frisk in Toronto was one of the main drivers of crime downwards.

        Your supporting argument for this claim is that the crime rate has increased after the practice was stopped. That's... something. I don't know whether or not crime has actually gone up in Toronto, but given that the man assigned to evaluate [www.cbc.ca] the effectiveness of carding (Stop and Frisk) called it, "a practice that has not definitively been shown to widely reduce or solve crime," it seems as though you're jumping to conclusions. Even if it's true that crime has in fact increased since then, there doesn't seem to be any reason to believe that it's not a coincidence.

        You might also consider New York's Stop and Frisk program, which had few positive results [wikipedia.org].

        What you describe in your second paragraph is racial profiling, what the article is describing seems to be broader than that. Though the "negative neighborhood" comment might be interpreted as having a racial component.

        • The other big problem with "stop and frisk" is that it's almost always used only against minorities and poor people, and it causes the divide between those groups and law enforcement to widen. They're already leery of law enforcement, but stop and frisk makes them downright resentful. It is the literal opposite of "community policing". It might actually drive crime down slightly in the short term (although I'd have to see good research to be convinced) but I'd argue that in the long term it's almost cert

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Sound similar to London where stop and search just make things worse by increasing distrust in and animosity towards the police, making it harder for them to intervene early or gather intelligence. Of course the Metropolitan Police have had problems with institutional and individual racism for decades too, which only exacerbated the problem.

          What really helped in London was funding youth services and community projects that diverted people away from crime and gangs. When austerity started a decade ago the mo

          • I was under the impression that London was seeing record levels of violence. Are you saying that while it hasn't improved and in fact has gotten worse, youth services are working and the problem would be even worse without them? Seems like a lot of overhead necessary to accommodate certain groups new to the UK...
      • Because the research I've seen says it's worthless [wikipedia.org]. And like just about everywhere else Toronto's crime rate is going down [google.com]. 2005 [wikipedia.org] seemed to be the peak.

        Stop and Frisk in the States is mostly used to keep undesirables (read: the poor) out of your neighborhood. It's also used as a segregation technique in large parts of the South. That's why we shot it down. Not sure about Canada though.
      • by Macdude ( 23507 )

        I'm not sure how your post got modded "informative" when the criminal statistics you state are factually wrong. The murder rate in Toronto is lower than it was ten years ago, for example. Also Toronto's murder rate is below the national average, not #2.

      • by kbahey ( 102895 )

        Stop and Frisk in Toronto was one of the main drivers of crime downwards. Since Toronto stopped this in high crime areas, the crime rates are screeching ever higher now.

        For others who are reading this and modding it up, a bit of perspective.

        The Stop and Frisk version in Toronto was known as Carding, and had problems. It targeted blacks disproportionately.

        Read and watch these:

        DocZone: Stop and Frisk [www.cbc.ca]

        What You Need to Know About Carding [www.cbc.ca]

        You also make it sound that Toronto is a kill zone. Yes, murder rate has gon

      • Correlation != causation, have some citations that Stop and Frisk was actually the driver of the reduction in crime and not other contemporaneous factors?
  • by W. Justice Black ( 11445 ) on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @10:48PM (#58192092) Homepage

    Insufficient maple syrup
    Not being a hockey fan
    Disdain for Tim Horton's
    Lack of deference to the Corgi-Enthusiast-in-Chief
    Not translating everything into French
    Moose baiting
    Too little gravy in the poutine
    Mainlining smoked meat
    Kraft Dinner addiction (outside of the norm)
    and finally...
    Insincere and/or infrequent apologies

    • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      Missed a few things, including meth labs, rampant B&E problems, heavy substance abuse issues to start with.

      Get's more interesting here in Ontario, because cities are in charge of shelter/low income housing programs. And for instance in the GTA, they're pushing the poor(who are citizens) out of low income and shelters, to give space to 'migrants' and illegals from the US. Wonder why crime is spiking, after all it's only going to be -15C in most of Ontario tonight and we just got ~15cm of snow.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Canada wake the fuck up your unalienable rights are being flushed down the toilet.

  • So will this turn into Canada's version of the "Sesame Credit Score"?
  • by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @11:51PM (#58192310)
    Who is doing it better, Canada with RTD or China with the social credit score?

    So far China seems to be ahead because they have a phone app that lets users know there is a low credit looser nearby. If you hang out too near them you might get infected and be squashed like a bug too.

    The US seems to be falling behind. We have all this data on everyone, and the public and private sector data is fused, but it's only Wall Street and law enforcement seem to use it as a permanent non-alterable black mark: no-fly and insane interest rates respectively. When Canada is ahead of the US as a surveillance state it's pathetic.

    • I feel like you have forgotten how important credit scores are in the US.

      If you add in "social scores" which I'm pretty sure are accounted for somewhere in your experian/credit karma,,, ratings, you may be a potential future recipient of unknown influences on your ability to make purchases on credit,

      I tend to prefer to buy based on my ability to pay in full at the time of the purchase. Especially when I can get a discount for paying in cash.

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Credit scores, social scores, lets snap back to reality, what to do something real, for every prescribed crime, require a psychological assessment and based upon that, whether or not extended psychological treatment is required to ensure rehabilitation. So being prosecuted for a prescribed crime should ensure proper mental health treatment is provided, to ensure effective rehabilitation and the prevention of the creation of future victims.

        Right wing morons cheaped out on proper mental health services and w

    • lets users know there is a low credit looser nearby.

      But what about the low credit tighters, that's what I want to know!

  • So, they're trying to build a crude version of "the machine" from Person of interest?

    • by Anonymous Coward

      So, they're trying to build a crude version of "the machine" from Person of interest?

      Translation: Once again, they've taken technology from fictional writings and screenplays that were used to numb the masses years ago and put it into society?

      Orwell's 1984, Minority Report, and Person of Interest are but a few examples showcasing the fact that we've been predicting this for over half a century now. Unfortunately, we shouldn't be surprised when the end result of AI development is Cyberdyne Systems and Skynet. A sitting US President issued a warning to the world about the rise of the Milita

    • That was my first reaction too when I read the synopsis.
      Sorry, but I never have mod points when I really need them, or I would mark this insightful (because you are thinking like I am)
  • information related to events, who, where sure seems to me, to damage the usefulness of said information. So what are they saying their plan is?
    Collect useful information then modify the raw data until it is useless and that is a productive thing to do.

    mmm I wonder if they are keeping everything, then trying to pass the collection off as safe! Seems to do otherwise is a waste of time.

    Minority Report and Pre Crime here we come ;)

    Just my 2 cents ;)
  • by Anonymous Coward

    So how in hell do you do an anonymized Door Knock?

    The police go out and knock on every door in the city: Excuse me, can I please talk to Mr/Ms Anonymous, he/she/it may be at risk of something or other...

    This is obvious transparent BS and exemplifies the growth of the Nanny State.

  • When I spent 3 months in Toronto in 98, Canada was the better USA. American way of life without much of the negatives...

    And today Canada seems to be on the forefront of much that I despise.

    Sure, I've gotten way more conservative over the years... But I don't remember it being THAT leftist back then.

    I'm yearning for balance becoming the political agenda du jour but looking back in history, if it ever was a thing, it will likely take benevolent dictatorahip.

    And who wants to take those odds?

    • Sure, I've gotten way more conservative over the years... But I don't remember it being THAT leftist back then.

      It wasn't, but neither was the USA. Both have slid to the left since then.

    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      "I'm yearning for balance becoming the political agenda du jour but looking back in history, if it ever was a thing, it will likely take benevolent dictatorahip."

      Generally speaking a Democracy is, by its very nature, a balance of the ideologies of its people. If Americans weren't more Leftist today then they were 30 years ago then political figures like Bernie wouldn't be relevant because no one would care what he was saying

      Also, the whole surveillance state thing, at least in the US, is hardly exclusively

  • I identify as an electron and I object to this racist and blatant tracking offense. It's almost like they want to know where I'm going.

    Jokes on them, though, I turn into a wave when they're not looking.

    So, seems like they're watching "people of interest", where interest is defined as how upset you are. Isn't this what they're supposed to be doing? Just asking.
  • If people are putting their personal shit out there then it's their own fault.
  • Hmm... now I need to make one for politicians and enforcement time to purchase a scaleable platform. If they think it's okay to do it to us, I can do it to them too :-)
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • 28 February 2019 9:35 A.M. "Doug" bumped into a lamp post. Did NOT say "sorry". Suspected American infiltrator.

Did you know that if you took all the economists in the world and lined them up end to end, they'd still point in the wrong direction?

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