Political parties police themselves on using voters’ personal data: watchdog
The federal privacy watchdog is calling on the government to address what he calls significant gaps in the law that allow political parties to police themselves when it comes to how they collect and use data on voters.
Political parties are only bound by internal, voluntary privacy policies in the absence of an independent body to ensure they follow their own rules, federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien told a parliamentary committee Tuesday.
Therrien has been calling for changes to strengthen privacy laws to cover how political parties use data – a campaign that has been attracting fresh attention in recent weeks following revelations about how Facebook and other companies treat the personal data of its users.
“Neither I nor any other independent person can verify what’s going on,” said Therrien, who reasserted his demand for stronger privacy laws as he appeared before MPS in Ottawa.
“If there was ever a time for action, I think frankly, this is it.”
His testimony comes as policymakers and regulators around the world examine how to better protect the online data of users as allegations swirl that tens of millions of Facebook users had their personal information improperly accessed for political purposes.
Facebook estimates the personal data of 622,161 users in Canada – and nearly 87 million worldwide – was inappropriately harvested by firms that allegedly used the information to help deliver electoral wins in the U.K.’S Brexit referendum and the 2016