Nicole Goodman, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Brock University; Sara Bannerman, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Communication Policy and Governance at McMaster University; and Julia Kalinina, Law student at York University had a piece published in The Conversation on Jan. 23 about the ability of Canadian political parties to collect voters’ personal information and the negative impact the practice could have on Canadian democracy.

They write:

“The data collection practices used by political parties could pose a threat to voters’ engagement in the democratic process and could have negative implications for Canadian democracy. 

 British Columbia’s Privacy Commissioner recently found that political parties in British Columbia collect sensitive personal information about voters such as income, ethnicity, religious affiliation and political beliefs without their knowledge or consent.

 In the United Kingdom, an investigation launched following the Cambridge Analytica scandal “uncovered a disturbing disregard for voters’ personal privacy.” It concluded that Cambridge Analytica had aggregated Facebook users’ personal information without their consent for use in political campaigns, such as in the U.K., where it was used it to send micro-targeted information to voters.”

 Continue reading the full article here.