Toronto Crime Stoppers pauses program after CBC investigation reveals more details of data leak
More than 1.5 million Canadian tips exposed, including unredacted personal info, investigation found
Toronto Crime Stoppers is pausing its program, effective immediately, its chair, Sean Sportun, said in a statement sent late Wednesday evening.
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chair → pause → statement
The news follows an exclusive CBC investigation from earlier in the day revealing that information from more than 1.5 million tips submitted to Canadian Crime Stoppers programs over the last 25 years was exposed in a massive data breach.
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information → follow → breach
It was the first time precise figures were made public showing the severity of the information exposed, as well as how many Canadian tipsters were compromised.
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tipsters → make → information
Up until the investigation was published, the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association (CCSA) and individual chapters had not spoken out about the extent of the breach, only saying they awaited a detailed report from their vendor, U.S.-based company Navigate360.
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they → publish → vendor
Toronto Crime Stoppers now says it has removed the “Tip Submit” feature from its website and will no longer accept or process any new information intended for the program.
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it → say → program
It has also advised Navigate360, which owns tip management platform P3, to immediately suspend the intake function for the Toronto Crime Stoppers chapter.
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which → advise → chapter
In the statement, the organization advised the public not to send tips by phone, online or by the app "until we have a safer way to protect you."
"People in Toronto have come to Toronto Crime Stoppers because we promised they could stay anonymous.
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they → advise → Stoppers
This week’s reporting shows that for some of them, that promise was broken.
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promise → show → them
We are deeply sorry," Sportun said in a statement.
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Sportun → say → statement
The Toronto Police Service also announced in a statement Wednesday evening that it has “temporarily suspended its use of Crime Stoppers" until further review.
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it → announce → review
News follows CBC investigation
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News → follow → investigation
According to CBC's investigation, Toronto Crime Stoppers was the Canadian chapter with the most tips represented in the leak, with more than 179,000 tips linked to the organization.
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Stoppers → accord → organization
The analysis also revealed that more than half of all Canadian tips included personally identifiable information about tipsters, individuals named in allegations and even Crime Stoppers staff and police.
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half → reveal → allegations
We could not determine in every instance whether the information belonged to a tipster, a victim or those accused of a crime.
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information → determine → crime
However, CBC found that in over 4,300 reports, tipsters introduced themselves with a full name, although Crime Stoppers explicitly tells the public to avoid including identifying details.
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Stoppers → find → details
Still, this represented a fraction of reports, at less than one per cent of all entries over 25 years.
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this → represent → years
CBC wasn't able to verify whether all names were legitimate.
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names → verify → ?
Despite hundreds of those tips containing clear staff warnings that a tipster had "self-identified" or had been "exposed," the information still appeared in the database unredacted.
Toronto Crime Stoppers' Wednesday statement reiterated that the program aims to keep tips anonymous.
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program → contain → tips
“We never ask for your name, and we don’t want it," it said.
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it → ask → it
"But people sometimes include details to explain what they saw.
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they → include → what
Before a tip goes to investigators, our practice is to remove those details.
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practice → go → details
It has come to light that some of those original tips containing potentially identifying information were stolen from P3.”
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some → come → P3
The Toronto police statement, which was sent at almost the same time as the response from Toronto Crime Stoppers, said the news "raises serious concerns regarding the protection of confidential information provided through the Crime Stoppers program."
At the time of publication, CBC could still access a tip form using the main P3 platform.
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CBC → send → platform
The Aporia
