Canada's political parties don't meet voters' privacy expectations: OpenMedia report

Consumer advocacy group OpenMedia says Canada'south political parties are non meeting voters' basic expectations of privacy that accept been prepare out by the land'due south Main Electoral Officer and the Part of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC).

The organization conducted a review of the parties' new privacy policies against the guidelines that the Balloter Officer and the OPC put out to comply with Nib C-76, amendments to the Canada Elections Human activity. Parties include the Liberal Party of Canada, Bourgeois Party of Canada, Green Party of Canada, the New Democrat Party and the Bloc Québécois.

The analysis was conducted using privacy policies every bit of July 2nd following the June 30th deadline for all parties to comply with C-76.

According to the report, all parties (except for the NDP) failed when it comes to informing individuals if they have been field of study to a data breach.

All parties get partial credit with respect to being transparent about how a person's data will be used. The written report stated that the parties bespeak examples of how data is used and shared, notwithstanding, parties are "non clear whether this is an exhaustive list or whether in that location are other means in which data is used or shared."

Parties also receive partial credit for the information that is being shared and giving consent to collecting, using and sharing your information. But OpenMedia's study indicated that parties do "not spell out key best practice details such as obtaining consent from inferred or predictive information, or obtaining express consent for collecting information on ethnicity, political views or organized religion."

"In the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, the constant talk of misinformation, and the growing number of severe data breaches affecting people in Canada, you would hope our political parties would see the value in stepping up to embrace transparency and information protection," said OpenMedia' executive director Laura Tribe.

"Instead, what we've been left with is a brutally hypocritical double standard, where politicians run across themselves as above the law, and our nearly sensitive personal information every bit aught more election fuel."

Source: OpenMedia