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In a nutshell, it is illegal in Canada to receive or divulge
communications that any individual could reasonably assume should be
confidential.
Included in this category are phone calls between parties
(two or more), or police discussions over secure encrypted
radio frequencies.
Analog and digital scanners are legally
sold in Canada, and are approved for use by the federal
department of communications. Unaltered, these legal
scanners are unable to receive any cell phone frequencies,
or police and other security agency encrypted communications.
There are several government Acts addressing
this issue, including the Radiocommunications Act
and the Privacy Act.. While one Act might
call into question the legal distribution of captured
frequencies, the other Act permits the practice. A judicial
ruling is never rendered using a single Act as a basis,
with total disregard of any other Canadian Act
or the Canadian Charter of Rights itself.
The distribution of scanned
Air Traffic Control frequencies is permitted in Canada so long as the content is not
deemed to be 'personal information' as defined by the Privacy
Act. To be considered personal information, the information must be
about an individual, that individual must be identifiable,
and the information must be recorded.
Whether or not an argument can be made that an
aircraft registration or a police unit number identifies an individual (unlikely), or hearing a
Controller or Policeman's voice identifies that individual (even more unlikely), this web site
neither
records, nor makes available any transcripts of recordings. The information broadcast
through this web site complies with the Canadian Privacy Act
and only deals with frequencies that a user should reasonably be
expected to know are available within the 'public domain.'
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