The electronic spy agency for Canada may be monitoring Canadians who use the Internet according to recent revelations by Edward Snowden. If this is true what does this mean for Canadians who are online? Snowden has claimed that the Canadian electronic spy agency has been intercepting data which is being further analyzed concerning as many as 15 million file downloads every single day, and a report that was published Wednesday also makes these claims. This is the first time that Canadians have been told that they are being spied on by their own government in this way, and there are mixed emotions about what this means. For some the loss of privacy is no big deal, with the reasoning that is an individual is not doing something wrong they have nothing to worry about. Others believe that this action is a violation of privacy and of trust.

According to recent reports from journalists and whistle blowers, including disclosures from Edward Snowden, the Canadian electronic spy uses the nickname Levitation. According to CBC the CSE is a secret agency, just like the NSA in the USA, and part of the duties of the agency is to monitor electronic communications. With the numerous acts of terrorism around the world recently governments are taking several steps to minimize the risks to citizens and ferret out extremists who may already be in the country. Critics are calling for a new system though, because there are some privacy concerns with the current system that operates in full secrecy. According to Jack Harris “There are privacy concerns but we don’t really have a framework to ensure that, and we can’t just go with ‘Just trust us’.” OpenMedia.ca, a lobby group, responded to the report by saying “CSE is clearly spying on the private online activities of millions of innocent people, including Canadians, despite repeated government assurances to the contrary”.