Teresa Scassa - Blog

 

This is a copy of my submission in response to the Elections Canada consultation on Political Communications in Federal Elections. The consultation closes on August 21, 2020. Note that this submission has endnotes which are at the end of the document. Where possible these include hyperlinks to the cited sources.

16 August 2020

I appreciate the invitation to respond to Election Canada’s consultation on the overall regulatory regime that governs political communications in federal elections. I hold the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa, where I am also a law professor. I provide the following comments in my capacity as an individual.

The consultation raises issues of great importance to Canadians. My comments will focus on Discussion Paper 3: The Protection of Electors’ Personal Information in the Federal Electoral Context.[1]

Concerns over how political parties handle personal information have increased steadily over the years. Not surprisingly, this coincides with the rise of big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) and the capacity of these technologies to use personal data in new ways including profiling and manipulating. Discussion Paper 3 hones in on the Cambridge Analytica scandal[2] and its implications for the misuse of personal data for voter manipulation. This egregious case illustrates why, in a big data environment, we need to seriously address how voter personal data is collected, used and disclosed.[3] The potential misuse of data for voter manipulation is an expanding threat.[4] Yet this kind of high-profile voter manipulation scandal is not the only concern that Canadians have with how their personal information is handled by political parties. Additional concerns include lax security;[5] unwanted communications;[6] targeting based on religion, ethnicity or other sensitive grounds;[7] data sharing;[8] lack of transparency,[9] and voter profiling.[10] In addition, there is a troubling lack of transparency, oversight and accountability.[11] All of these are important issues, and they must be addressed through a comprehensive data protection regime.[12]

Public concern and frustration with the state of data protection for Canadians when it comes to political parties has been mounting. There have been reports and studies,[13] op-eds and editorials,[14] privacy commissioner complaints,[15] a competition bureau complaint,[16] and even legal action.[17]

There is a growing gulf between what Canadians expect when it comes to the treatment of their personal data and the obligations of political parties. Canadians now have two decades of experience with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)[18] which governs the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data in the private sector. Yet PIPEDA does not apply to political parties, and there is a very wide gap between PIPEDA’s data protection norms and the few rules that apply to federal political parties. There is also considerable unevenness in the regulatory context for use of personal data by political parties across the country. For example, B.C.’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)[19] already applies to B.C. political parties, and while there have been some problems with compliance,[20] the democratic process has not been thwarted. A recent interpretation of PIPA by the B.C. Privacy Commissioner also places federal riding offices located in B.C. under its jurisdiction.[21] This means that there are now different levels of data protection for Canadians with respect to their dealings with federal parties depending upon the province in which they live and whether, if they live in B.C., they are interacting with their riding office or with the national party itself.. Further, if Quebec’s Bill 64 is enacted, it would largely extend the province’s private sector data protection law to political parties. Ontario, which has just launched a consultation on a new private sector data protection law for that province is considering extending it to political parties.[22] Internationally, The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)[23] applies to political parties, with some specially tailored exceptions. Frankly put, it is becoming impossible to credibly justify the lack of robust data protection available to Canadians when it comes to how their personal data is handled by political parties. Lax data protection is neither the rule in Canada, nor the norm internationally.

There are points at which Discussion Paper 3 is overly defensive about the need for political parties to collect, use and disclose personal information about voters in the course of their legitimate activities. This need is not contested. But for too long it has gone virtually unrestrained and unsupervised. To be clear, data protection is not data prohibition. Data protection laws explicitly acknowledge the need of organizations to collect, use and disclose personal information.[24] Such laws set the rules to ensure that organizations collect, use, and disclose personal data in a manner consistent with the privacy rights of individuals. In addition, they protect against broader societal harms that may flow from unrestrained uses of personal data, including, in the political context, the manipulation of voters and subversion of democracy.

1. Information provided to parties by Elections Canada

Discussion Paper 3 sets out the current rules that protect electors’ personal information. For the most part, they are found in the Canada Elections Act (CEA).[25] In some instances, these rules provide less protection than comparable provincial election laws. For example, security measures, including the use of fictitious information in lists of electors to track unauthorized uses are in place in some jurisdictions, but not at the federal level. Discussion Paper 3 notes that while such measures are not part of the CEA, best practices are provided for in Elections Canada guidelines.[26] These guidelines are not mandatory and are insufficient to protect electors’ information from deliberate or unintentional misuse.

The CEA also contains new provisions requiring political parties to adopt privacy polices and to publish these online. While such privacy policies offer some improved degree of transparency, they do not provide for adequate enforcement or accountability. Further, they do not meet the threshold, in terms of prescribed protections, of the fair information principles that form the backbone of most data protection laws including PIPEDA.

There are some matters that should be addressed by specific provisions in the CEA. These relate to information that is shared by the CEA with political parties such as the list of electors. The CEA should maintain accountability for this information by imposing security obligations on parties or candidates who receive the list of electors. It would be appropriate in those circumstances to have specific data breach notification requirements relating to the list of electors contained in the CEA. However, with respect to the wealth of other information that political parties collect or use, they should have to comply with PIPEDA and be accountable under PIPEDA for data breaches.

2. Fair Information Principles Approach

Discussion Paper 3 takes the position that fair information principles should be applied to political parties, and frames its questions in terms of how this should be accomplished. There are two main options. One is to craft a set of rules specifically for political parties which might be incorporated into the CEA, with oversight by either the Privacy Commissioner and/or the Chief Electoral Officer. Another is to make political parties subject to PIPEDA, and to add to that law any carefully tailored exceptions necessary in the political context. The latter approach is better for the following reasons:

· The data protection landscape in Canada is already fragmented, with separate laws for federal and provincial public sectors; separate laws for the private sector, including PIPEDA and provincial equivalents in B.C., Alberta and Quebec; and separate laws for personal health information. There is a benefit to simplicity and coherence. PIPEDA can be adapted to the political context. There are many obligations which can and should be the same whether for private sector organizations or political parties. If particular exceptions tailored to the political context are required, these can be added.

· Political parties in BC (including federal riding associations) are already subject to data protection laws. Quebec, in Bill 64, proposes to make political parties subject to their private sector data protection law. The same approach should be followed federally.

· It is expected that PIPEDA will be amended in the relatively short term to bring it into line with the contemporary big data context. Creating separate norms in the CEA for political parties risks establishing two distinct privacy schemes which may not keep up with one another as the data context continues to evolve. It is much simpler to maintain one set of norms than to have two sets of privacy norms that are initially similar but that diverge over time.

 

3. Fair Information Principles: Specific Provisions

Discussion Paper 3 considers certain of the Fair Information Principles and how they apply to political parties. This discussion seems to assume in places that the solution will be to introduce new provisions in the CEA, rather than applying PIPEDA to political parties, subject to certain exceptions. For example, the first question under Accountability asks “Besides publishing their privacy policies, what other requirements could parties be subject to in order to make them accountable for how they collect, use and disclose personal information?”[27] As noted above, my view is that political parties should be subject to PIPEDA. The “other requirements” needed are those found in PIPEDA. There is no need to reinvent the wheel for political parties.

On the issue of data breaches, I note with concern that Discussion Paper 3 takes an overly cautious approach. For example, it states, presumably referring to PIPEDA, that “There are also penalties for organizations that knowingly fail to report a breach, which could be ruinous for a smaller party.”[28] In the first place, these penalties are for knowingly failing to report a breach, not for experiencing a breach. A party that experiences a data breach that creates a real risk of serious harm to an individual (the reporting threshold) and does not report it, should not complain of the fines that are imposed for this failure. Secondly, the amounts set out in the legislation are maximum fines and courts have discretion in imposing them. In any event, a class action law suit following a data breach is much more likely to be the ruination of a smaller party; liability for such a data breach could be mitigated by being able to demonstrate not only that the party complied with data protection norms but that it also responded promptly and appropriately when the breach took place. In my view, the data breach notification requirements can and should be applied to political parties.

Discussion Paper 3 also floats the idea of a voluntary code of practice as an alternative to parties being subject to data protection laws. It states: “A voluntary code may be more palatable to political parties than legislated change, while at the same time moving towards increasing electors’ privacy”.[29] It is fair to say that ‘soft’ guidance with no enforcement is always more palatable to those to whom it would apply than real obligations. However, we are long past the time for a gentle transition to a more data protective approach. Political parties have embraced big data and data analytics and now collect, use, and disclose unprecedented amounts of personal information. They need to be subject to the same data protection laws as other actors in this environment. While those laws may need a few carefully tailored exceptions to protect the political process, on the whole, they can and should apply.

It would be wasteful, confusing, and unsatisfactory to create a parallel regime for data protection and political parties in Canada. Given their embrace of the big data environment and their expanding use of personal data, these parties should be held to appropriate and meaningful data protection norms, with oversight by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Federal political parties should be subject to PIPEDA with some carefully tailored exceptions.



[1] Elections Canada, Discussion Paper 3: The Protection of Electors’ Personal Information in the Federal Electoral Context, May 2020, online: https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=cons/dis/compol/dis3&document=index&lang=e.

[2] See, e.g.: Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, PIPEDA Report of Findings #2019-004: Joint investigation of AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd. by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, November 26 2019, online: https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-actions-and-decisions/investigations/investigations-into-businesses/2019/pipeda-2019-004/.

[3] Cherise Seucharan and Melanie Green, “A B.C. scandal has pulled back the curtain on how your online information is being used”, November 29, 2019, online: https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2019/11/29/heres-how-companies-and-political-parties-are-getting-their-hands-on-your-data.html.

[4] Brian Beamish, 2018 Annual Report: Privacy and Accountability for a Digital Ontario, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, June 27, 2019, at p. 30, online: https://www.ipc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ar-2018-e.pdf. Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, “Investigation Report P19-01: Full Disclosure: Political parties, campaign data, and voter consent”, February 6, 2019, online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/investigation-reports/2278.

[5] Joan Bryden, “Elections Canada chief warns political parties are vulnerable to cyberattacks”, 4 February 2019, Global News, online: https://globalnews.ca/news/4925322/canada-political-parties-cyberattack-threat/; Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, “Investigation Report P19-01: Full Disclosure: Political parties, campaign data, and voter consent”, February 6, 2019, at 6 (noting the number of complaints received relating to lax security practices), and pp. 27-31 (outlining security issues), online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/investigation-reports/2278.

[6] Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, “Investigation Report P19-01: Full Disclosure: Political parties, campaign data, and voter consent”, February 6, 2019, at 22, online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/investigation-reports/2278. Note that the complaint that led to the ruling that that province’s Personal Information Protection Act applied to federal riding associations in B.C. was based on an unconsented to use of personal data. See: OIPC BC, Courtenay-Alberni Riding Association of The New Democratic Party of Canada, Order No. P19-02, 28 August 2019, online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/orders/2331.

[7] See, e.g.: Michael Geist, “Why Political Parties + Mass Data Collection + Religious Targeting + No Privacy Laws = Trouble”, October 11, 2019, online: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2019/10/why-political-parties-mass-data-collection-religious-targeting-no-privacy-laws-trouble/; Sara Bannerman, Julia Kalinina, and Nicole Goodman, “ Political Parties’ Voter Profiling Is a Threat to Democracy”, The Conversation, 27 January 2020, online: https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/01/27/Political-Parties-Profiling-Democracy/.

[8] See: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, “Investigation Report P19-01: Full Disclosure: Political parties, campaign data, and voter consent”, February 6, 2019, at 25, online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/investigation-reports/2278.

[9] Colin Bennett, “They’re spying on you: how party databases put your privacy at risk”, iPolitics, September 1, 2015, online: https://ipolitics.ca/2015/09/01/theyre-spying-on-you-how-party-databases-put-your-privacy-at-risk/

[10] Colin J. Bennett, “Canadian political parties are gathering more and more data on voters all the time. It’s time we regulated what data they glean, and what they can do with it”, Policy Options, 1 February 2013, online: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/aboriginality/bennett/.

[11] See, e.g.: Yvonne Colbert, “What's in your file? Federal political parties don't have to tell you”, CBC, 30 July 2019, online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/privacy-federal-political-parties-transparency-1.5226118; Katharine Starr, “Privacy at risk from Canadian political parties, says U.K. watchdog”, CBC, 10 November 2018, online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/uk-information-commissioner-canadian-parties-data-privacy-1.4898867.

[12] Federal, Provincial and Territorial Privacy Commissioners of Canada support meaningful privacy obligations for political parties. See: Securing Trust and Privacy in Canada’s Electoral Process: Resolution of the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Information and Privacy Commissioners, Regina, Saskatchewan, September 11-13, 2018, online: https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/about-the-opc/what-we-do/provincial-and-territorial-collaboration/joint-resolutions-with-provinces-and-territories/res_180913/.

[13] See, e.g.: Colin J. Bennett and Robyn M. Bayley, “Canadian Federal Political Parties and Personal Privacy Protection: A Comparative Analysis”, March 2012, online: https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-actions-and-decisions/research/explore-privacy-research/2012/pp_201203/; Colin Bennett, “Data Driven Elections and Political Parties in Canada: Privacy Implications, Privacy Policies and Privacy Obligations”, (April 12, 2018). Canadian Journal of Law and Information Technology, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3146964; Colin J. Bennett, “Privacy, Elections and Political Parties: Emerging Issues For Data Protection Authorities”, 2016, online: https://www.colinbennett.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Privacy-Elections-Political-Parties-Bennett.pdf; House of Commons, Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, Democracy Under Threat: Risks and Solutions in the Era of Disinformation and Data Monopoly (December 2018), online: <https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/ETHI/Reports/RP10242267/ethirp17/ethirp17-e.pdf>, archived: https://perma.cc/RV8T-ZLWW.

[14] See, e.g.: Samantha Bradshaw, “Data-protection laws must be extended to political parties”, Globe and Mail, 22 March 2018, online: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-data-protection-laws-must-be-extended-to-political-parties/; Michael Morden, “Politicians say they care about privacy. So why can political parties ignore privacy law?”, Globe and Mail, 29 May 2019, online: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-politicians-say-they-care-about-privacy-so-why-can-political-parties/; Colin Bennett, “Politicians must defend Canadians’ online privacy from Big Tech – and from politicians themselves”, Globe and Mail, 26 December 2019, online: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-politicians-must-defend-canadians-online-privacy-from-big-tech-and/; Sabrina Wilkinson, “Voter Privacy: What Canada can learn from abroad”, OpenCanada.org, 4 October 2019, online: https://www.opencanada.org/features/voter-privacy-what-canada-can-learn-abroad/ Fraser Duncan, “Political Parties and Voter Data: A Disquieting Gap in Canadian Privacy Legislation”, Saskatchewan Law Review, June 21 2019, online: https://sasklawreview.ca/comment/political-parties-and-voter-data-a-disquieting-gap-in-canadian-privacy-legislation.php; Colin Bennett, “They’re spying on you: how party databases put your privacy at risk”, iPolitics, September 1, 2015, online: https://ipolitics.ca/2015/09/01/theyre-spying-on-you-how-party-databases-put-your-privacy-at-risk/.

[15] See: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, “Investigation Report P19-01: Full Disclosure: Political parties, campaign data, and voter consent”, February 6, 2019, at 25, online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/investigation-reports/2278; OIPC BC, Courtenay-Alberni Riding Association of The New Democratic Party of Canada, Order No. P19-02, 28 August 2019, online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/orders/2331.

[16] See: Rachel Aiello, “Major political parties under competition probe over harvesting of Canadians' personal info”, CTV News 15 January 2020, online: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/major-political-parties-under-competition-probe-over-harvesting-of-canadians-personal-info-1.4768501.

[17] Rachel Gilmore, “Privacy group going to court over alleged improper use of voters list by Liberals, Tories and NDP”, CTV News, 10 August 2020, online: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/privacy-group-going-to-court-over-alleged-improper-use-of-voters-list-by-liberals-tories-and-ndp-1.5058556.

[19] SBC 2003, c 63, http://canlii.ca/t/52pq9.

[20] Investigation Report P19-01: Full Disclosure: Political parties, campaign data, and voter consent”, February 6, 2019, at 22, online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/investigation-reports/2278.

[21] OIPC BC, Courtenay-Alberni Riding Association of The New Democratic Party of Canada, Order No. P19-02, 28 August 2019, online: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/orders/2331.

[22] Ministry of Government and Community Services, “Ontario Private Sector Privacy Reform: Improving private sector privacy for Ontarians in a digital age”, 13 August 2020, online: https://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/showAttachment.do?postingId=33967&attachmentId=45105.

[23] L119, 4 May 2016, p. 1–88; online: https://gdpr-info.eu/.

[24] See, e.g., PIPEDA, s. 3.

[26] Elections Canada, Guidelines for the Use of the List of Electors, https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&document=index&dir=ann/loe_2019&lang=e.

[27] Elections Canada, Discussion Paper 3: The Protection of Electors’ Personal Information in the Federal Electoral Context, May 2020, at 11, online: https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=cons/dis/compol/dis3&document=index&lang=e.

[28] Ibid at 16.

[29] Ibid at 17.

Published in Privacy

A ruling under B.C.’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) will add new fuel to the fires burning around the issue of whether Canada’s federal political parties should have to comply with data protection laws. In Order P19-02, B.C. Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy rejected constitutional challenges and ruled that B.C.’s data protection law applied not just to provincial political parties (something it indisputably does), but also to electoral district associations in B.C. established under the Canada Elections Act. The decision means that the hearing into a complaint against the Courtenay-Alberni Riding Association of the New Democratic Party of Canada will now proceed. The riding association will still have the opportunity to argue, within the factual context of the complaint, that the application of specific provisions of PIPA place unacceptable limits on the right to vote and the freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter).

There has been considerable attention paid to the relatively unregulated information handling practices of Canadian political parties in the last few years. A 2012 report commissioned by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada laid out the legal landscape. In the fall of 2018, federal, provincial and territorial privacy commissioners issued a joint call for meaningful privacy regulation of political parties in Canada. In late 2018, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics issued its report titled Democracy Under Threat: Risks and Solutions in the Era of Disinformation and Data Monopoly in which it recommended, among other things, that Canadian political parties be made subject to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Instead, the federal government chose to amend the Canada Elections Act to add some fairly tepid requirements for parties to have and make available privacy policies. Meaningful oversight and enforcement mechanisms are notably absent. In April 2019, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada issued guidance for political parties on how to protect privacy. On August 7, Open Media conducted a review of the privacy policies of Canada’s federal political parties, measuring them against the guidelines issued by the OPC. The review reveals a fairly dismal level of privacy protection. As noted above, B.C.’s PIPA applies to B.C.’s provincial political parties. A review of those parties’ privacy practices earlier this year resulted in an investigation report that makes interesting reading.

It is within this context that a B.C. couple filed a complaint with the B.C. Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner after each received and email from the NDP’s Courtenay-Alberni Riding Association inviting them to attend a meet and greet with the federal party’s leader. The couple wrote a letter to the local NDP seeking to know what information the party had on them, from whom it had been sourced, with whom it had been shared, and how the information had been and would be used. When they did not receive a satisfactory response, they filed a complaint with the OIPC. Since the NDP objected to the jurisdiction of the OIPC in the matter, the OIPC issued a notice of hearing to determine the preliminary issue of whether BC’s PIPA applied to the Courtney-Alberni Riding Association (the Organization).

The Organization made three constitutional arguments objecting to the jurisdiction of the OIPC. The first is that PIPA cannot apply to federally registered political entities because s. 41 of the Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal government sole jurisdiction over the conduct of federal elections. The second is that PIPA cannot apply because other federal laws, including the Canada Elections Act and PIPEDA are paramount. The third argument was that, if PIPA were found to apply, to the extent that it did so, it would place unjustified limits on the right to vote and the freedom of expression guaranteed under the Charter. As noted above, on this third issue, the adjudicator ruled that there was an insufficient factual context to make a determination. Because Commissioner McAvoy ultimately decided that PIPA applies, the third question will be considered in the context of the hearing into the actual complaint.

Commisioner McAvoy noted that PIPA applies to every “organization” in BC. “Organization” is defined broadly to include: “a person, an unincorporated association, a trade union, a trust or a not for profit organization.” The Riding Association, as an unincorporated association, falls within this definition. He ruled that it made no difference that the organization was established under the constitution of a federal political party or that it is involved in federal politics. He rejected the Organization’s rather convoluted argument that since PIPEDA also applied to ‘organizations’, it precluded the application of BC’s statute. The Commissioner noted that because there is no commercial activity, PIPEDA did not apply to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information by the organization, and thus did not preclude the application of PIPA.

Commissioner McAvoy rejected the first constitutional argument on the basis that PIPA does not attempt to regulate the conduct of federal elections. PIPA’s purpose relates to “the regulation of the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by organizations.” (at para 45) It has nothing to do with any election-related issues such as the establishment of political parties, voting processes, or campaign financing. PIPA itself falls within provincial jurisdiction over “property and civil rights” in B.C. The Organization argued that by applying to federal riding associations in the province, it attempted to affect matters outside the province, but the adjudicator disagreed. He stated: “Analysis of incidental effects should be kept distinct from assessment of whether a provincial statute is validly enacted under the Constitution Act, 1867” (at para 52). He noted that in any event, incidental effects do not necessarily render a statute unconstitutional.

The Commissioner also rejected the paramountcy argument. The Organization argued that PIPA’s provisions conflicted with the Canada Elections Act, as well as the Telecommunications Act and Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and frustrated a federal purpose and therefore could not apply to federal riding associations in B.C. Commissioner McEvoy found that there was no actual conflict between the federal and provincial laws. The Canada Elections Act imposes no substantive obligations around, for example, consent to the collection of personal information. It is not a situation where one statute says consent is not required and another says that it is. The Canada Elections Act is simply more permissive when it comes to personal information. Because the do-not-call list established under the Telecommunications Act does not address email communications, which is the subject matter of the actual complaint, there is no conflict with that law. Similarly, he found no conflict with the CASL. Although the CASL permits political parties or organizations to send emails with out consent to solicit donations, the email that was the subject of the complaint before the OIPC did not solicit a donation, but was rather an invitation to an event. As a result there is no conflict between the laws. Further, case law does not support the view that a conflict is found simply because a provincial law has more restrictive elements than a federal law. The Commissioner stated: “the fact that the Canada Elections Act and the two other federal laws take a permissive approach to use of certain personal information of electors does not of itself establish a conflict with PIPA’s requirements (even if one assumes, for discussion purposes only, that PIPA actually prohibits that which federal law permits.) . . . It is possible to comply with both PIPA and the federal laws [. . .]” (at para 79).

Commissioner McAvoy also rejected the argument that the application of PIPA would frustrate the federal purpose pursued under the Canada Elections Act. He found that the Organization had not adequately established the federal purpose nor had it managed to demonstrate how PIPA frustrated it.

Clearly this particular skirmish is far from complete. It is entirely possible that the Organization will challenge the Commissioner’s decision, and the matter may head to court. Nevertheless, the decision is an important one, as it raises the clear possibility that riding associations of federal political parties in BC might be held to a far stricter standard of data protection that that required of political parties elsewhere in Canada. This will increase the growing pressure on the federal government to take real, concrete steps to ensure that political parties are held to the same standards as private sector organizations when it comes to collecting, using and disclosing personal information. Given vast amounts of data available, the potential for intrusive and inappropriate uses, the controversies around profiling and targeting, and the growing risks of harm from data breaches, this is an unacceptable legislative gap.

 

Published in Privacy

The issue of the application of privacy/data protection laws to political parties in Canada is not new – Colin Bennett and Robin Bayley wrote a report on this issue for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 2012. It gained new momentum in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal when it was brought home to the public in a fairly dramatic way the extent to which personal information might be used not just to profile and target individuals, but to sway their opinions in order to influence the outcome of elections.

In the fallout from Cambridge Analytica there have been a couple of recent developments in Canada around the application of privacy laws to political parties. First, the federal government included some remarkably tepid provisions into Bill C-76 on Elections Act reform. These provisions, which I critique here, require parties to adopt and post a privacy policy, but otherwise contain no normative requirements. In other words, they do not hold political parties to any particular rules or norms regarding their collection, use or disclosure of personal information. There is also no provision for independent oversight. The only complaint that can be made – to the Commissioner of Elections – is about the failure to adopt and post a privacy policy. The federal government has expressed surprise at the negative reaction these proposed amendments have received and has indicated a willingness to do something more, but that something has not yet materialized. Meanwhile, it is being reported that the Bill, even as it stands, is not likely to clear the Senate before the summer recess, putting in doubt the ability of any amendments to be in place and implemented in time for the next election.

Meanwhile, on June 6 2018, the Quebec government introduced Bill no 188 into the National Assembly. If passed, this Bill would give the Quebec Director General of Elections the duty to examine and evaluate the practices of the provincial political parties’ collection, use and disclosure of personal information. The Director General must also assess their information security practices. If the Bill is passed into law, he will be required to report his findings to the National Assembly no later than the first of October 2019. The Director General will make any recommendations in this report that he feels are appropriate in the circumstances. The Bill also modifies laws applicable to municipal and school board elections so that the Director-General can be directed by the National Assembly to conduct a similar assessment and report back. While this Bill would not make any changes to current practices in the short term, it is clearly aimed at gathering data with a view to informing any future legislative reform that might be deemed necessary.

 

Published in Privacy

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Canada’s federal government has come under increased criticism for the fact that Canadian political parties are not subject to existing privacy legislation. This criticism is not new. For example, Prof. Colin Bennett and Robin Bayley wrote a report on the issue for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 2012.

The government’s response, if it can be called a response, has come in Bill C-76, the Act to amend the Canada Elections Act and other Acts and to make certain consequential amendments which was introduced in the House of Commons on April 30, 2018. This Bill would require all federal political parties to have privacy policies in order to become or remain registered. It also sets out what must be included in the privacy policy.

By way of preamble to this critique of the legislative half-measures introduced by the government, it is important to note that Canada already has both a public sector Privacy Act and a private sector Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Each of these statutes sets out rules for collection, use and disclosure of personal information and each provides for an oversight regime and a complaints process. Both statutes have been the subject of substantial critique for not going far enough to address privacy concerns, particularly in the age of big data. In February 2018, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics issued a report on PIPEDA, and recommended some significant amendments to adapt the statute to protecting privacy in a big data environment. Thus, the context in which the provisions regarding political parties’ privacy obligations are introduced is one in which a) we already have privacy laws that set data protection standards; b) these laws are generally considered to be in need of significant amendment to better address privacy; and c) the Cambridge Analytica scandal has revealed just how complex, problematic and damaging the misuse of personal information in the context of elections can be.

Once this context is understood, the privacy ‘obligations’ that the government proposes to place on political parties in the proposed amendments can be seen for what they are: an almost contemptuous and entirely cosmetic quick fix designed to deflect attention from the very serious privacy issues raised by the use of personal information by political parties.

First, the basic requirement placed on political parties will be to have a privacy policy. The policy will also have to be published on the party’s internet site. That’s pretty much it. Are you feeling better about your privacy yet?

To be fair, the Bill also specifies what the policy must contain:

(k) the party’s policy for the protection of personal information [will include]:

(i) a statement indicating the types of personal information that the party collects and how it collects that information,

(ii) a statement indicating how the party protects personal information under its control,

(iii) a statement indicating how the party uses personal information under its control and under what circumstances that personal information may be sold to any person or entity,

(iv) a statement indicating the training concerning the collection and use of personal information to be given to any employee of the party who could have access to personal information under the party’s control,

(v) a statement indicating the party’s practices concerning

(A) the collection and use of personal information created from online activity, and

(B) its use of cookies, and

(vi) the name and contact information of a person to whom concerns regarding the party’s policy for the protection of personal information can be addressed; and

(l) the address of the page — accessible to the public — on the party’s Internet site where its policy for the protection of personal information is published under subsection (4).

It is particularly noteworthy that unlike PIPEDA (or any other data protection law, for that matter), there is no requirement to obtain consent to any collection, use or disclosure of personal information. A party’s policy simply has to tell you what information it collects and how. Political parties are also not subject to any of the other limitations found in PIPEDA. There is no requirement that the purposes for collection, use or disclosure meet a reasonableness standard; there is no requirement to limit collection only to what is necessary to achieve any stated purposes; there is nothing on data retention limits; and there is no right of access or correction. And, while there is a requirement to identify a contact person to whom any concerns or complaints may be addressed, there is no oversight of a party’s compliance with their policy. (Note that it would be impossible to oversee compliance with any actual norms, since none are imposed). There is also no external complaints mechanism available. If a party fails to comply with requirements to have a policy, post it, and provide notice of any changes, it can be deregistered. That’s about it.

This is clearly not good enough. It is not what Canadians need or deserve. It does not even come close to meeting the standards set in PIPEDA, which is itself badly in need of an overhaul. The data resources and data analytics tools available to political parties have created a context in which data protection has become important not just to personal privacy values but to important public values as well, such as the integrity and fairness of elections. Not only are these proposed amendments insufficient to meet the privacy needs of Canadians, they are shockingly cynical in their attempt to derail the calls for serious action on this issue.

Published in Privacy

How does one balance transparency with civil liberties in the context of election campaigns? This issue is at the core of a decision just handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada.

B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association v. Attorney-General (B.C.) began as a challenge by the appellant organization to provisions of B.C.’s Election Act that required individuals or organizations who “sponsor election advertising” to register with the Chief Electoral Officer. Information on the register is publicly available. The underlying public policy goals to allow the public to see who is sponsoring advertising campaigns during the course of elections. The Supreme Court of Canada easily found this objective to be “pressing and substantial”.

The challenge brought by the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (BCFIPA) was based on the way in which the registration requirement was framed in the Act. The Canada Elections Act also contains a registration requirement, but the requirement is linked to a spending threshold. In other words, under the federal statute, those who spend more than $500 on election advertising are required to register; others are not. The B.C. legislation is framed instead in terms of a general registration requirement for all sponsors of election advertising. BCFIPA’s concern was that this would mean that any individual who placed a handmade sign in their window, who wore a t-shirt with an election message, or who otherwise promoted their views during an election campaign would be forced to register. Not only might this chill freedom of political expression in its own right, it would raise significant privacy issues for individuals since they would have to disclose not just their names, but their addresses and other contact information in the register. Thus, the BCFIPA sought to have the registration requirement limited by the Court to only those who spent more than $500 on an election campaign.

The problem in this case was exacerbated by the position taken by B.C.’s Chief Electoral Officer. In a 2010 report to the B.C. legislature, he provided his interpretation of the application of the legislation. He expressed the view that it did not “distinguish between those sponsors conducting full media campaigns and individuals who post handwritten signs in their apartment windows.” (at para 19). This interpretation of the Election Act was accepted by both the trial judge and at the Court of Appeal, and it shaped the argument before those courts as well as their decisions.

The Supreme Court of Canada took an entirely different approach. They interpreted the language “sponsor election advertising” to mean something other than the expression of political views by individuals. In other words, the statute applied only to those who sponsored election advertising – i.e., those who paid for election advertising to be conducted or who received such services as a contribution. The Court was of the view that the public policy behind registration requirements was generally sound. It found that a legislature could mitigate the impact on freedom of expression by either setting a monetary threshold to trigger the requirement (as is the case at the federal level) or by defining sponsorship to exclude individual expression (as was the case in B.C.). While it is true that the B.C. statute could still capture organized activities involving expenditures of less than $500, and might thus have some limiting effect, the Court found that this would not be significant for a number of reasons, and that such impacts were easily reconcilable with the benefits of the registration scheme.

The decision of the Supreme Court of Canada will be useful in clarifying the scope and impact of the Election Act and in providing guidance for similar statutes. It should be noted however, that the case traveled to the Supreme Court of Canada at great cost both to BCFIPA and to the taxpayer because of either legislative inattention to the need to clarify the scope of the legislation or because of an over-zealous interpretation of the statute by the province’s Chief Electoral Officer. The situation highlights the need for careful attention to be paid at the outset of such initiatives to the balance that must be struck between transparency and other competing values such as civil liberties and privacy.

 

Published in Privacy

Canadian Trademark Law

Published in 2015 by Lexis Nexis

Canadian Trademark Law 2d Edition

Buy on LexisNexis

Electronic Commerce and Internet Law in Canada, 2nd Edition

Published in 2012 by CCH Canadian Ltd.

Electronic Commerce and Internet Law in Canada

Buy on CCH Canadian

Intellectual Property for the 21st Century

Intellectual Property Law for the 21st Century:

Interdisciplinary Approaches

Purchase from Irwin Law