NSA Spying Sends Data to Canada

In Kamloops, B.C., cool overnight temperatures in summer mean Telus needs to run its air conditioning for only about 40 hours a year to keep its computer servers from overheating. Lower cooling costs are part of the Canadian telecommunications company’s sales pitch to businesses looking to store troves of digital information cheaply. Telus also promotes Canada’s inexpensive hydroelectric power, low seismic activity—and, now, lower risk of government snooping. “There is a structural advantage in Canada in that the data is here and the privacy protection is more stringent,” says Lloyd Switzer, who runs Telus’s 10 data centers.

With revelations about surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency stoking public outrage, companies such as Vancouver-based Telus and Rogers Communications in Toronto see opportunity in telling customers about Canada’s privacy protections. Its Privacy Act, which took effect in July 1983, limits the amount of personal information the government can collect, use, and disclose. Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE)—the agency responsible for gathering foreign intelligence—is forbidden by law from monitoring domestic communications. Surveillance of e-mail exchanges or phone calls may be authorized if one of the parties is outside the country.