Protect voter privacy: End loopholes now!

Canada’s political parties are collecting our personal data on a MASSIVE scale with almost NO rules. They use this data to profile us and target us with ads, trying to sway undecided voters to their side, say one thing to some of us and something else to others, or even discourage us from voting altogether!

They get away with it for one simple reason: federal privacy laws don’t apply to them because they wrote the law that way! This loophole lets them handle data about voters however they please, with almost NO accountability or oversight!1

This isn’t right and it needs to change—our right to control our privacy is fundamental to our democratic process!

Email political party leaders today to demand privacy law reform and call for stronger privacy protections NOW!

How do political parties exploit your personal data?

Political parties are working with private companies to use voters’ personal information and target voters for election campaigns as they please. If you’ve ever talked to a campaign volunteer, signed a petition by a political party, or taken a call from a candidate asking about your views, your personal information is probably stored in a political party’s database, along with most other Canadians. You can’t see it, you can’t change it, and it might not be right – but it could affect how parties talk to you about the issues that confront our democracy for decades to come.2

What’s wrong with our current privacy law?

Right now, Canada’s federal privacy laws don’t apply to Federal Political Parties (FPPs), and it's unclear if provincial privacy laws do either. This means FPPs can collect, use, and share personal information however they want, as long as they follow their own weak self-written policies under the Canada Elections Act (CEA). Even Canada’s anti-spam laws don’t cover FPPs—they’re specifically exempt.3

Why do we need to push for stronger laws to protect voter privacy?

Because they won’t do the right thing unless we fight for it. Despite 96% of Canadians believe standard privacy laws should apply to parties, the parties themselves are the ones that make the laws and have little interest in changing them.4 After the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in May that federal political parties must comply with provincial privacy laws, all three federal parties filed nearly identical notices of appeal.5 This response clearly shows their reluctance to change how they handle voters’ data.

Without stronger privacy protections, political parties can continue to exploit our data with little oversight or accountability. As big data and AI get more and powerful, this is putting our privacy and the integrity of our democratic process at risk.

We can and must do better. Stand with us to demand stronger privacy laws that make political parties handle your data responsibly. Email political party leaders NOW to demand real privacy protections and safeguard our democratic rights!

Sources

  1. Liberal Party of Canada v The Complainants – CanLII
  2. Tip of the Iceberg: The Political Influence Industry In Canada – OpenMedia
  3. See footnote 2
  4. Canada’s political parties are exempt from privacy laws. Voters say that needs to end – Global News
  5. Federal parties appeal court order to follow stricter voter data rules – The Hill Times

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Press: Matt Hatfield | Phone: +1 (888) 441-2640 ext. 0 | [email protected]