Ontario prison call centre drives 100% pollsters crazy

Criminals could collect information and use it for illegitimate ends

By: Pat Daley

  Suppertime, the phone rings, and a man's voice asks for a few minutes of your time to answer some questions about a new product on the market. You say yes, picturing the fellow toiling away in a call centre somewhere in Northern Ontario or Atlantic Canada.
  Think again.
  It could easily be an inmate of the minimum security Pittsburgh Institution outside of Kingston, Ontario, where Correctional Service Canada has opened a call centre of its own.
  The Canadian Survey Research Council (CSRC), the public policy and lobby arm of the market and survey research industry, says the work training program could be putting members of the public at risk.
  "This could lead to cases where criminals go too far in the type of information they collect, such as lifestyle habits, household purchases or financial data, and use such information towards illegitimate ends," explains CSRC President Dr. Ken Deal said in a news release. "We think it is against the public interest for Corrections Canada to provide convicted criminals with the telephone numbers of Canadian citizens and train them to call individuals to elicit a wide range of private information."
  The market researchers are also concerned that people will become reluctant to respond to surveys or give inaccurate information if they suspect prison inmates are doing the calling.
  By setting up the call centre, Deal said, the federal government has backed away from steps it has taken to improve privacy protection through the Privacy Act and Competition Act amendments that prohibit deceptive telemarketing practices.
  Anyone wanting to check on the legitimacy of a research project or wanting to make a complaint can call the CSRC at 1-800-554-9996.

Other articles from the Daley dispatches

Posted: March 12, 2001

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