8 January 2025

Centre for Digital Rights

Non-profit
LEGAL CAMPAIGN
Spring 2018 to 2022

Privacy and Political Parties

Legal complaints against the personal data protection policies and practices of Canada’s three main federal political parties.

In March 2022, the Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia found that federal political parties were subject to the province’s Personal Information and Protection Act, or PIPA. The parties have resisted complying with provincial and federal privacy laws, which makes the Commissioner’s ruling important: for its groundbreaking first step in overcoming the resistance.

 

Since May 2018, CDR has raised urgent concerns about the data protection policies and practices of Canada’s main federal political parties. This work has been developed in discussions with a number of Canadian law enforcement agencies administering principles-based laws on competition, privacy, anti-spam, malware, and election integrity. 

 

Read the BC Privacy Commissioner ruling P22-02

 

The quinfecta of formal complaints that were under review included:

 

01. TO THE INFORMATION AND PRIVACY COMMISSIONER OF B.C. UNDER THAT PROVINCE’S PERSONAL INFORMATION AND PROTECTION ACT (B.C.’S PIPA): a complaint that the FPP’s collection, use and disclosure of the personal information of B.C.’s residents is contrary to the meaningful consent requirements under B.C.’s PIPA;

 

02. TO THE FEDERAL COMMISSIONER OF COMPETITION UNDER THE COMPETITION ACT (CA): a complaint that, generally, the big data mass surveillance and harvesting techniques, analytics, algorithms resorted to by three main federal political parties (FPPs) and the large scale misuse of big data and targeted digital advertising employed by them undermines the trust of Canadian voters in the marketplace of goods, services and ideas and, specifically, that these practices contravene the prohibition on deceptive marketing under section 74.01(1)(a) of the CA;

 

03. TO THE FEDERAL PRIVACY COMMISSIONER UNDER THE PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION AND ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS ACT (PIPEDA): a complaint that the FPPs use and disclose the personal information they collect from Canadians for purposes that a reasonable person would not consider to be appropriate and in a manner contrary to their respective privacy policies in violation of the meaningful consent requirements under PIPEDA;

 

04. TO THE CHIEF ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE OFFICER OF THE CANADIAN RADIO-TELEVISION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CRTC) UNDER CANADA’S ANTI-SPAM LEGISLATION (CASL): a complaint that the FPP’s use of the Facebook Pixel on their respective websites violates the no-installation-of-programs-on-computers (without consent or a court order) principles in section 8 of CASL; and

 

05. TO THE COMMISSIONER OF ELECTIONS CANADA UNDER THE CANADA ELECTIONS ACT (CEA): a complaint that the FPPs are using personal information that is recorded in the list of electors for purposes other than to communicate with voters (such as “scoring” voters) and thus for unauthorized purposes contrary to section 110(1) of the CEA.

 

CDR pursued these complaints with focus and intensity. It will continue to encourage Canadian law enforcement agencies to work together to hold Canada’s federal political parties accountable for violations of Canadians’ privacy rights and freedoms. To be clear, it’s wrong to assert (as some do) that there are “no laws” governing the privacy protection policies and practices of Canada’s federal political parties. That’s a dangerous misconception, especially in this digital age of data-driven elections.

 

As CDR’s quinfecta of complaints shows, Canada has many robust laws based on broad principles that, if properly interpreted and vigorously enforced to protect Canadians (and the individual autonomy and freedoms that underpin Canada’s markets and democracy), can effectively regulate for the public good what Canada’s federal political parties do with Canadians’ personal information.

2022Globe and Mail
article:

British Columbia privacy ruling over political party data collection is a victory for voters’ privacy, writes Colin Bennett, professor of political science at University of Victoria. Read here

2022CBC News
article:

The office of British Columbia’s privacy commissioner has found that federal political parties are subject to the province’s Personal Information Protection Act. Read here

2020Toronto Star
article:

The Competition Bureau confirmed Wednesday that it has launched an investigation into how the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP amass and use data on Canadian citizens. Read here

2020Postmedia Network
article:

Competition Bureau investigating political parties over data collection practices. Material republished with the express permission of: Financial Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. Read here View pdf

2019CBC News
article:

The case for making political parties follow the same privacy rules as corporations. Parties collect your data through their apps, but it’s not always clear what happens to it after that. Read here

2019Globe and Mail
article:

Legal campaign calls on five watchdogs to investigate political parties over privacy concerns. It claims parties violate Canadians’ privacy rights by compiling detailed dabatases on them. Read here View pdf