Spy agencies to explore Facebook data scandal as Canada hints at tougher laws
OTTAWA — The Trudeau government is turning to its spy agency and high-tech cybersleuths to ensure the privacy rights of Canadians are being protected as revelations swirl about Facebook data being exploited for political gain.
And Scott Brison, the acting minister for democratic institutions, also said Tuesday he would be open to strengthening federal privacy laws even further to better defend those who share their information online.
Federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien, meanwhile, formally launched an investigation to determine whether any personal information of Canadians was affected by the alleged unauthorized access to Facebook user profiles.
Brison was responding to revelations by Canadian data expert Christopher Wylie, who is accusing data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica of improperly obtaining private data from Facebook users in order to help advance Donald Trump’s campaign efforts ahead of the U.S. election.
Policy-makers around the world are grappling with the implications following media reports that data collected by Facebook and other social-media companies is being harvested and used to influence elections.
Recent reports by The New York Times and The Observer of London say Trump’s 2016 campaign hired Cambridge Analytica, which crunched private information it inappropriately collected from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users.
Wylie, who worked for the federal Liberals about a decade ago, has said in media interviews that the company used the information to profile voters and has alleged the company took fake news to the next level. The company denies any wrongdoing.
Facebook’s alleged data seepage has created worries in Canada, where the country’s largest provinces are set to go to the polls this year and a federal election sits on the horizon for 2019.
“We’ve reached out as a department of democratic institutions to (the Communications Security Establishment) to ask them to do an analysis of these recent events and to consider other ways that we can further strengthen the protection of our democratic institutions,” Brison said.
“Social media platforms have a responsibility to protect the privacy and personal data of citizens, and to protect the integrity of our electoral system where they operate.”
Brison said he planned to meet with CSE and also the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the national domestic spy service, to consider the global environment and assess threats to the electoral system and the protection of personal information.