Toronto Crime Stoppers has stopped accepting new information after details of a data breach raised questions about the anonymity it promises tipsters. In the Toronto Crime Stoppers data breach, the organization said it ordered software vendor Navigate360 to stop collecting and processing new Toronto tips. It also told Canada’s National Anonymous Call Centre to stop receiving or handling tips intended for the Toronto program.
The halt covers submissions through the organization’s website, phone line and app. Toronto Crime Stoppers said it will not resume taking tips until it has a system it can stand behind as safe for people providing information.
“People trusted us with their safety,” chair Sean Sportun said in a statement reported by CityNews. The organization said it has been working with partners on a safer way to collect tips.
What data was involved in the Toronto Crime Stoppers breach?
Navigate360 told Toronto Crime Stoppers that data taken from P3, software used by Crime Stoppers, contained 176,859 Toronto tips submitted between January 2022 and November 2025, according to the chapter’s statement. The vendor also said 14,973 names appeared in the affected material.
That does not establish that nearly 15,000 tipsters were identified. Toronto Crime Stoppers said Navigate360 had not determined whether the names belonged to people who submitted tips, people named in reports, or both. The program says it does not request a tipster’s name, though people sometimes include names while describing what they saw. It said those details are removed before a tip is passed to investigators.
The chapter said it has sought the text of the stolen Toronto tips through its lawyers but has not received it from Navigate360. That leaves the organization unable to independently assess what information was contained in the records it says were taken.
What Toronto Crime Stoppers says it knew
Toronto Crime Stoppers said Navigate360 told it in March that the P3 platform was secure. In April, the chapter said, the vendor told it that Toronto data had not been taken. Navigate360 informed the chapter in June that Toronto data was affected, but did not specify what had been exposed, according to the statement.
The pause came after reporting by CBC, cited by The Record, found personal information in about half of 1.5 million breached tips from Crime Stoppers chapters across Canada that it reviewed. The Record reported that a group calling itself Internet Yiff Machine claimed responsibility for the March breach and gave a motive. That claim has not been independently established.
Where can Toronto residents report information now?
The Toronto Police Service has temporarily suspended its use of Crime Stoppers while it assesses added safeguards and security measures, CityNews reported. Police directed people who want to report crime or public-safety concerns to use the service’s existing reporting channels directly.
Toronto Police also said the Crime Stoppers platform operates independently of the service. Direct police reporting is therefore the available alternative during the suspension, not a replacement for the anonymous Crime Stoppers process.
This story draws on original reporting from The Record.
