It's time for another Quarterly Transparency Report from your friendly independent ISP, TekSavvy

[andykm@mstdn.ca]

It's time for another Quarterly Transparency Report from your friendly independent ISP, TekSavvy

#TekSavvy is the only ISP in #Canada (AFAIK) to publish a quarterly Transparency Report documenting the requests we got from law enforcement agencies, how we handled them, and what we disclosed to them.

Today, we’re reporting on Q2 of 2024 and as usual, I’m summarizing that report here (and yes, I know this is repetitive!). 🧵

#Privacy #Transparency #TransparencyReport #Telecom
1/8

[andykm@mstdn.ca]

Today, we published our transparency report covering April to June 2024. You can download the report (and years of our previous reports) at https://www.teksavvy.com/policies/legal-stuff/transparency-report/

The number of requests and disclosures in this report is on the low end compared to most past reports. In Q2 2024, we got 40 requests and orders, compared to:

39 in Q1 2024
59 in Q4 2023
38 in Q3 2023
45 in Q2 2023
58 in Q1 2023
46 in Q4 2022
33 in Q3 2022
53 in Q2 2022
2/8

[andykm@mstdn.ca]

If you're a frequent reader, you'll know that in the last report (Q1), the number of requests from federal agencies was unusually low. That's true this time too, with just 4. From 2020 to 2023, the average number of federal requests in a quarter was 25. Meanwhile, the provincial number this time was tied for the highest ever at 40, and it's been 39 or 40 for three consecutive Qs. We don't know why it's happening, e.g. if it indicates a change in police practices, but this feels like a trend.
3/8

[andykm@mstdn.ca]

One corollary of that change is that we had a lower over-all disclosure rate. Our disclosure rate has always been lower for provincial requests than for federal requests. From 2020 through 2023, we disclosed information in response to on average 91% of federal requests, but only 62% of provincial requests. That's because of a combination of factors, like federal agencies send orders faster when we're more likely to have logs, and they rarely make informal requests.
4/8

[andykm@mstdn.ca]

Moving on, this quarter, we made no proactive reports to law enforcement. That would be when we disclose a customer's information on our own initiative, not in response to police. This is rare and typically happens when an agent overhears violence or a customer makes a credible threat on a call with us. It is never related to a customer's online activity; we do not track that. From our stats, we make proactive disclosures about five times per year.
5/8

[andykm@mstdn.ca]

Finally, as always: Sometimes our numbers don’t add up perfectly, or may not be totally complete, mostly because it's hard to perfectly keep track of every informal request. Some are so-called "jurisdiction requests" that look formal but aren't; other times an officer may just ask for information. There may be small discrepancies in our numbers due to that. But our reports do reflect all of the formal requests and orders.
6/8

[andykm@mstdn.ca]

TekSavvy remains the only ISP in Canada (AFAIK) that publishes detailed information about how we handle requests from law enforcement agencies. If you're interested in learning more about that, you can read our Law Enforcement Guide. There you can learn about what information we have about subscribers, and when we do or do not disclose it. It's an interesting read -- trust me.

https://www.teksavvy.com/policies/legal-stuff/law-enforcement-guide/
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