Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Email this7:50 am
December 7, 2011
Offline
Beginning in January 2019, Statistics Canada will ask nine banks for the financial transaction information from a representative sample of 500,000 randomly chosen Canadians or a 1 in 20 chance of being selected.
However, as a new sample of Canadians will be chosen each year, StatsCan’s personal information bank could grow into the millions.
The personal banking and financial transactions being requested include bill payments, cash withdrawals from ATMs, credit card payments, electronic money transfers and even account balances of Canadians across the country. The data gathered will be used to track household spending and consumer trends, like how often Canadians spend money outside the country.
Stats Canada says the data will be transmitted using a secure file transfer protocol and will be held on its own unique servers protected by a network firewall.
8:13 am
December 17, 2016
Offline
On the surface, that action by our socialist government sounds a bit nasty ... but predictable. All information means All information - the list sounds to be extensive and complete. My guess is that the "participants" will be targeted with the big savers/spenders/movers being on the first year's list.
9:40 am
May 27, 2016
Offline
And once they determine the nature and amount of personal financial traffic and the average profile of the people doing it, the next step will be to somehow put a meter on the activity so they can tax or fee it -- after all, if you have any savings, somehow you're viewed as being "rich" instead of simply self-reliant and responsible
10:26 am
March 5, 2018
Offline
This is extremely concerning and should not be allowed. Why do they want to de-identify the data only AFTER they've done their collection and analysis? If you're doing data mining analysis, you don't need to see personally identifiable SINs and so on. Replacing those markers give you the same data mining results and insights as leaving those markers in, except you can't identify the person. So Stats Canada's claim is therefore bogus, and they have another agenda by asking for identifiable data to do their analysis.
10:49 am
April 6, 2013
Offline
I think Statistics Canada needs the personally-identifiable markers initially to link together all the info for each person across the nine banks. Statistics Canada probably suspects people use more than one financial institution.
Once the linking is done, the markers can be replaced with anonymous identifiers, like Person #1, Person #2, …, Person #500,000.
11:29 am
September 11, 2013
Offline
To me this is in sync with what Canadians regularly vote for, i.e. a move from freer markets to a more regulated, gov't controlled economy. About 60% or more Canadians consistently vote for policies that indicate we prefer big gov't to big business, so to me, despite a few reservations, the gov't knows this will be cool with most of us.
12:41 pm
August 4, 2010
Offline
Statistics Canada is a world-respected statistical agency (when it isn't being politically interfered with), and there are both organizational and statutory requirements for strict data confidentiality. It isn't as if even government departments can just wander through StatsCan's data.
It is an open question as to whether requesting transactional financial info like this is justified by the analyses they want to produce, but talk of ulterior agendas or socialist conspiracies doesn't cut much ice.
1:19 pm
December 17, 2016
Offline
Of course these proposed actions by a government agency are nothing short of nefarious and reek of the ever-increasing rise of citizen surveillance - to think otherwise is naiveté at it's most basic definition.
Socialist governments love nothing more than marshalling an obedient proletariat.
1:48 pm
February 27, 2018
Offline
Without doubt, all of our gathered information will be kept safe. Canada's commodor 64s are state of the art. 
2:48 pm
December 7, 2011
Offline
Only 9 banks, no credit unions.
Probably RBC, CIBC, TD, BMO, BNS, National Bank, Laurentian Bank, Manulife Bank, Canadian Western Bank.
9:40 pm
October 21, 2013
Offline
Winnie said
Only 9 banks, no credit unions.
Probably RBC, CIBC, TD, BMO, BNS, National Bank, Laurentian Bank, Manulife Bank, Canadian Western Bank.
Most of us process our transactions with other banks and CUs through one of the above.
9:12 am
December 17, 2016
Offline
Sorry to see that my earlier comment was deleted.
The truth behind StatsCan going after bank customers is because banks are federally regulated while credit unions fall under provincial regulation which are out of the reach of StatsCan ... these are true facts.
10:09 am
August 10, 2018
Offline
Good to know, I think Meridian will get a lot more of my business now.
10:23 am
December 17, 2016
Offline
Bruford said
Good to know, I think Meridian will get a lot more of my business now.
Hmmm ... whatever happened to Meridian's quest to become a national bank?
10:39 am
August 4, 2010
Offline
Top It Up said
The truth behind StatsCan going after bank customers is because banks are federally regulated while credit unions fall under provincial regulation which are out of the reach of StatsCan ... these are true facts.
There is a federal Statistics Act which requires individuals and businesses to provide information legitimately requested by StatsCan. That would apply to both federally and provincially regulated financial institutions - the request wouldn't be made under the federal financial regulations.
If they are only doing federal banks this is likely because they are much larger, and they can get a statistically valid sample from a small number of those without having to deal with a bunch of smaller CUs. It may also be that the federally regulated institutions have to conform to some sort of common data or reporting formats, which would be easier than also having to match with data from CUs that might report somewhat differently.
Kidd said
Without doubt, all of our gathered information will be kept safe. Canada's commodor 64s are state of the art.
My knowledge of StatCan's systems is vague, second-hand and long out of date. But I'd be certain that any personally identifiable data used to create the working (non-identifiable) dataset would be stored in their separate internal network, which does not connect to the internet. It might even be safer there than in a bank's systems, which need to be accessible to customers.
12:18 pm
October 21, 2013
Offline
Top It Up said
Hmmm ... whatever happened to Meridian's quest to become a national bank?
Meridian is to open a national bank in 2019. As far as I know, this has always been their intention. It is a lengthy and complex process.
2:13 pm
December 7, 2011
Offline
NorthernRaven said
My knowledge of StatCan's systems is vague, second-hand and long out of date. But I'd be certain that any personally identifiable data used to create the working (non-identifiable) dataset would be stored in their separate internal network, which does not connect to the internet. It might even be safer there than in a bank's systems, which need to be accessible to customers.
Stats Canada says the data will be held on its own unique servers protected by a network firewall and connected to the internet, not in their separate internal network.
3:37 pm
February 27, 2018
Offline
You're truly giving the Canadian government more credit than they deserve.
In Ontario we used to have dmv kiosks, which made licence renewals, a piece of cake. These kiosks were hacked with credit card skimmers, so they were all removed.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/11/06/service-ontario-kiosks-ontario-government_n_2081077.html
Here's a government who bought Phoenix, a payroll system that had been proven NOT to work before we bought it.
Here's a government who started a do NOT call registry. Then in 2009, they sold the list to organizations. So that we could be called.
Here's a government thinking about a 5G network, using Chinese technology full of backdoors. The Americans have sternly warned YOUR government NOT to use Huawei.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4542443/us-senators-justin-trudeau-huawei/
So tell me... the Canadian government gathers ALL our financial data in one place. Tom Tutone has $352,987.32 at TD account number 8675309. All the work has been done for the Russians and Chinese. If the states get hacked daily and they are a hell of a lot smarter than us... WHAT CHANCE DO WE HAVE?
3:37 pm
April 9, 2013
Offline
I get the sense that most of you or at least half the respondents prefer to be in denial about the writing on the wall. I'm with Top it Up, Londonguy & Blue & I'll take it a step further. Our governments are insolvent or however close to insolvent as a government can be.
This goes beyond this latest development because I see it in other areas both at provincial & federal levels, which I won't get into in this forum, but suffice it to say that they're trying to expand their reach into how they can pick our pockets.
They've been entrusted with trillions, squandered it & they can't pay it back without raising taxes & getting voted out of office. They're not gonna get it back from the millions that are as irresponsible as they've been...after all, all those bureaucrats are part of the irresponsible millions, instead, like Londonguy alluded to, they'll target the self-reliant and responsible, as are most of us in this forum. They seem to be sending us a message that all our hard work is in vain as they'll be appropriating our fruits to subsidize their incompetence.
If it were up to me, I'd have them suffer the same fate as every other delinquent debtor & get repo-ed. I don't know who their biggest creditors are...probably the Chinese. Whoever it is, they'd probably do a better job managing our finances than them.
2:45 pm
March 5, 2018
Offline
Well, I wrote to my MP. Will see if I get a response. My concern is that this came up in Parliament question period, and the Prime Minister defended it saying the data was anonymous, and he wasn't challenged on that. Well, we know that is not true. So I'm not sure what Statistics Canada is telling Parliament. But since Stats Canada is collecting the data with all personal identifiable markers intact, it is certainly NOT anonymous. It MAY be stripped afterward (as far as we're being told), but they receive it with all the personal info.
And what happens to the initial data with all the personal detail? Deleted right away? Kept for a few years? What? And we all know "deleted" data is never really deleted but tends to live on somewhere and can be revived, so to speak. I support Stats Canada's effort to conduct their research, but they need to get data that is properly stripped and made anonymous.
Please write your comments in the forum.