RCMP admits tracking cellphones to find suspects, missing persons

The RCMP confirmed Wednesday what civil liberties groups say has been an open secret for them for some time: that the Mounties use so-called mobile device identifiers, also known as Stingrays, to identify and locate cellphones.

In a rare disclosure of police tactics, the national police force acknowledged it used the technology 19 times last year, but insisted that it did so in compliance with the law and with judicial authorization.

The Mounties say the devices can identify and locate cellular devices, such as a mobile phone, enabling police to identify and apprehend a criminal suspect or locate a missing person.

The RCMP does not intercept phone calls, email or text messages, contact lists, images, encryption keys or basic subscriber information, the statement said.

The disclosure followed a CBC report that someone in downtown Ottawa has been using a device known as an “IMSI catcher,” which can intercept and identify cellphone metadata.

The report found the device being used in recent months in proximity to Parliament Hill and the U.S. and Israeli embassies, among other locations.

Brenda McPhail of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said the technology casts far too broad a net to be used by police, since it captures the data of innocent people in range of the device.

The federal privacy commissioner’s office acknowledged Wednesday that it is investigating the use of the IMSI devices.

The technology works by momentarily connecting to cellphones in its immediate proximity, before returning them to their own networks. It collects metadata associated with the phones, allowing the operator to identify the phone used by the suspect.

Except where there is an immediate threat of death or serious harm, police must obtain warrants to use the devices, the RCMP said.

“These devices are not about targeted surveillance, they’re indiscriminate,” McPhail said.

“They mimic a cellphone tower and they scoop up the data of everybody who has an active cellphone in a large area.

“In order to find the information of one suspect or a small group of suspects, you’re capturing the information of thousands of innocent bystanders.”