Toronto Crime Stoppers has paused its anonymous tip service after reporting by Canada’s CBC showed that more than 1.5 million tips from Crime Stoppers chapters across the country were exposed in a data breach. According to The Record, CBC reporters were able to reach more than a dozen tipsters using the hacked data, which they received in March from the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets. About half of the 1.5 million tips CBC studied, some dating back 25 years, contained personal information, the outlet reported, even though Crime Stoppers urges people not to give their names.
The data came from Navigate360 and its subsidiary P3 Global Intel, the vendor that handles tips for the chapters. A hacktivist group called Internet Yiff Machine claimed the March breach, saying it wanted to prove the two companies lied about their capabilities. Toronto Crime Stoppers’ own timeline says Navigate360 repeatedly said P3 was secure, said in April that Toronto’s data had not been taken, and said in June that it had been affected without saying what was exposed. Navigate360 has since told the Toronto chapter that 176,859 Toronto tips, reported between January 2022 and November 2025, were in the stolen data, and that it found 14,973 names in them, though it could not say whether they belonged to tipsters, suspects or both. The chapter says its lawyers have repeatedly asked Navigate360 for the text of the stolen tips without a response.
On October 21 the Toronto chapter told Navigate360 to stop taking tips and asked Canada’s National Anonymous Call Centre to stop receiving tips meant for Toronto. Its statement says: “Until we have a safer way to protect you, please do not send us tips by phone, online, or through the app.” The Canadian Crime Stoppers Association and Navigate360 had not responded to The Record’s requests for comment when it published.
How to check if you’re affected
The sources do not offer a way for individual tipsters to check whether their tip was in the data, and Toronto Crime Stoppers says it is still pressing Navigate360 for the text of the stolen tips. Affected products are the tip lines and apps run through Navigate360 / P3 Global Intel; The Record says the 1.5 million tips came from Crime Stoppers chapters across Canada, so tips to other chapters may be in the data too.
- If you submitted a tip to Toronto Crime Stoppers, its statement is posted at 222tips.com along with a timeline of what it knew and when. The chapter says it will share what it learns about the scope of exposure.
- If you submitted a tip elsewhere in Canada, check your local chapter’s website for its own notice. The sources we read do not say what other chapters have published.
- If you are worried about your safety because of something you reported, the Toronto chapter’s page says staff are responding to concerns from Crime Stoppers users; it directs questions to its communications contact.