Tyee Recognized for ‘Outstanding’ Reporting on Surveillance and Privacy

The Tyee is proud to receive an award from B.C.’s premier privacy advocacy group for “outstanding reporting related to surveillance and privacy.”

Web director and reporter Bryan Carney will receive the honour at tonight’s annual general meeting of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association in Vancouver.

BC FIPA president Mike Larsen singled out the investigative work of Carney and fellow Tyee reporter Andrew MacLeod in a statement describing why The Tyee was chosen for the honour.

“We would not know what we know about TransLink data sharing, RCMP social media snooping or the B.C. connection to the Facebook scandal without the work of Tyee contributors and editors,” he said.

Carney said he’s “very encouraged” to be recognized by FIPA for work that “in many ways has been enabled by FOI and privacy laws that the organization fought to get in place and defend.”

Tyee editor Robyn Smith said the award reflects the tenacity and patience of Carney and MacLeod, who invested much time digging and filing FOI requests to report their stories without knowing what would be discovered.

“Bryan and Andrew have become the region’s go-to reporters on the privacy beat, and we’re proud of their efforts to crack open and shed light on some of the most opaque and powerful companies on the planet,” she said.

“We know Tyee readers care deeply about the protection of their privacy, and that’s why it’ll remain one of our primary reporting focuses.”

In the last year, Carney and MacLeod have broken several stories on the beat, credited by BC FIPA as having “broadened and informed public debates about a range of important privacy rights issues,” including:

• Groundbreaking and sustained coverage of B.C.-based company Aggregate IQ and its connections to Cambridge Analytica and to B.C. political parties.
• Detailed examinations of the myths and realities of the Facebook scandal and the science of behavioural profiling.
• Original investigative reporting on TransLink’s practice of providing police with information about riders without warrants that led to an OIPC investigation, and followup reporting that revealed that the practice persists and has intensified.
• Original investigative reporting on the RCMP’s practice of monitoring social media through ‘Project Wide Awake.’
• Comparative reporting on the personal information collected and held by B.C. political parties — and on inaccuracies in this data.