The Liberal government has introduced a new lawful access bill that it says will help police and security services track and identify people who may be using tools like social media or artificial intelligence to commit crimes or threaten national security.

This legislation is the government’s most recent crack at broadening the access law enforcement agencies have after Bill C-2, introduced last spring, raised concerns with civil liberties groups that the powers went too far.

In a technical briefing on Thursday, government officials explained that Bill C-22 doesn’t give police or the security services access to people’s browsing or private social media history, but is limited to information that identifies who they are.

It will allow the security services to compel telecoms like Bell and Rogers to provide them with a yes or no answer when asked if a suspected criminal uses their services. 

If police want to get more information, such as a suspect’s email address, phone number or home address, they must convince a court that a crime has or will take place in order to get a warrant.

The legislation also formalizes how Canadian law enforcement make information requests to foreign social media companies like Meta and artificial intelligence firms like OpenAI, which created ChatGPT.

The process does not compel AI or social media companies to share information identifying subscribers, but it provides a legal framework that government officials explained encourages these companies to work with police and security services.

The legislation also does not require AI or social media companies to report suspicious or worrying activity to Canadian authorities.

The type of information law enforcement would be looking for from these companies include IP addresses of suspects who are using false identities on social media to commit crimes, the officials said.

The legislation also would require “electronic service providers” — a term that will be defined later through consultations — to maintain the capacity to geographically track the users of its products and services.

Officials explained that at present these providers only track the location of their users on a voluntary basis. 

Once that tracking is mandatory, Canada’s security services would be able to make a legal request to access that tracking software in order to investigate criminals and threats to national security.