Canada: Mayor makes, then withdraws, claim that Toronto is gathering cellphone data

A day after John Tory, the mayor of the City of Toronto, told thousands of attendees at an online event hosted by TechTO that the city was gathering cellphone location data from telecoms in order to identify areas where residents were still congregating despite the city's social distancing rules, he withdrew the claim. City staff explained that an offer had been made to share anonymous cellphone location data with the City and it had been passed along to Toronto Public Health and the Emergency Operations Centre, but it had not so far taken up the offer. The country's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said the federal government was not considering such a plan.

Sources:

https://thelogic.co/news/toronto-mayor-retracts-claims-city-is-collecting-cellphone-location-data-in-covid-19-fight/
https://thelogic.co/news/city-of-toronto-gathering-cellphone-location-data-from-telecoms-in-bid-to-slow-spread-of-covid-19-tory/

Writer: Murad Hemmadi
Publication: The Logic