Public Health Agency cancels social media snooping contract

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The tender for a contractor to monitor Canadians' online conversations for "Vaccination Confidence," first posted on December 22, was killed this week after public outcry.

Two businesses have shown an interest in the PHAC contract to collect social media data to help with targeting of the vax hesitant: Digby Motorcycles and a "PsyOp" shop.

Worth a read. 🤣https://t.co/qncRwYjjNy https://t.co/0LQNlP74ia pic.twitter.com/GJYyT3vc28

— Noé Chartier (@NChartierET) December 29, 2022

The original PHAC posting says:

In preparation for increased vaccination education, promotion, and outreach, The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is requiring the services of a consultant to analyze the vaccine related conversations on social media and PHAC social media initiative and campaign performance.

The consultant will analyze vaccine-related conversations, and their participants, on Twitter and social media channels, including Reddit, Blogs, Forums, and News, spanning up to three years of historical data.

The consultant will analyze PHAC’s social media initiative and campaign performance, including content engagements and the campaign’s influence on vaccine-related conversation.

Sheila describes how information from unwitting cell phone users turned over to PHAC 'contains the aggregated data for the indicator of time spent away from your primary location,' among other things.

FULL REPORT by @SheilaGunnReid: https://t.co/bJP8woi4SR pic.twitter.com/naqXag9bjw

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) July 22, 2022

Previously, the Public Health Agency of Canada conducted a data scoop of 33 million cell phone devices without users' knowledge to surveil location and GPS information. The information was used to monitor Canadians' proximity to each other and their visits to places like hospitals and long-term care facilities.