Government not ready to bring political parties under privacy laws

The government isn't ready to legislate changes that would put political parties under privacy laws, but other tools could be developed to help mitigate the threat to Canadians' personal information.

Scott Brison, the acting minister of democratic institutions, told The House before an action plan can be developed, he wants to consult with all the political parties.

"We are open to moving to strengthen the privacy regime that governs political parties," he said.

Currently, political parties are not covered under privacy laws like the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

Brison said that doesn't necessarily make it a free-for-all.  

"All political parties have privacy policies."

The government is open to figuring out a "uniform approach" across parties and potentially codify that, but that wouldn't necessarily result in legislation.

While it might be a step in the right direction, it may not be enough to satisfy privacy experts.

Legislation making parties accountable to privacy laws is sorely needed, according to Daniel Therrien, Canada's privacy commissioner.

Digital interference has moved to a point where information can be used for "nefarious purposes in the political process," Therrien said.

Omitting political parties from privacy legislation means people don't know what information has been collected about them, he explained.

As fallout continues from last week's Facebook privacy breach, it's still unclear how much Canadian data was affected.

Therrien launched an investigation into the site after millions of users' personal information was obtained by a data mining firm and later used to build voter profiles ahead of the U.S. election and Brexit votes.

He and Brison both said they had spoken with Facebook, and both said they indicated to the social media titan they wanted to know what the plan was to better protect information in the future.

It's not just Canada struggling with these issues, Brison said, adding he wants to work with other foreign governments to discuss the best way to get ahead of digital threats.

However, Brison wants tools considered carefully. 

The issue with developing privacy policies that target parties, according to Brison, is you risk fettering political parties' abilities to interact with constituents.

"There's a difference between foreign cyber bots thwarting our domestic election results, and the legitimate use of digital for political parties to engage citizens in debates about the future of their country."