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Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says Canada has to find a balance between internet privacy and the needs of law enforcement in the midst of a long-simmering dispute among Five Eyes countries and tech companies about encryption “backdoors.”

“We need to work with the internet companies and the service providers to achieve two objectives simultaneously. The objective of the privacy values that flow from strong new technologies and encryption, but at the same time making sure that our platforms and services and systems are not harbouring the kind of behaviour that would exploit children and create victims,” said Goodale.

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“The privacy commissioner and others would not, I’m sure, make the argument that the system should be designed in such a way that it becomes the secret preserve of those who would exploit children, for example.”

Goodale’s comments came at a news conference on Tuesday announcing more money for Canada’s national strategy to prevent child exploitation and the minister warned that people who prey on children, as well as other law-breakers, could exploit encrypted communications to evade police and plan crimes.