OTTAWA—Political parties should respect Canadians’ privacy rights and obtain “meaningful consent” before they collect citizens’ personal information, Canada’s privacy watchdog and top elections official say.

There are currently no rules governing how political operatives can collect, store and analyze personal information about Canadian voters, and no oversight into how political parties currently do so.

Elections Canada CEO Stéphane Perrault and Daniel Therrien, the federal privacy commissioner, called on parties to voluntarily submit to the same kind of standards applied to all other public and private entities.

“Canadians’ confidence in how political parties treat their personal information is essential to continued trust in electoral democracy,” Perrault said in a statement Monday.

“We know that political parties collect vast amounts of data about voters. Canadians expect and deserve to have their privacy rights respected as they exercise their democratic rights,” said Therrien.

MPs from all three major parties on the House of Commons’ ethics committee recommended that political parties be subject to the same kind of privacy laws that govern private-sector businesses.

While much attention has been focused on how those businesses — particularly tech giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google — hoover up private information about their users, comparatively little public attention has been paid to the fact that there are virtually no rules for how political parties do the same.

A recent report by the privacy watchdog in British Columbia, the only jurisdiction where provincial parties are subject to privacy laws, found that parties routinely broke privacy rules. For instance, party activists going door-to-door would look for religious symbols inside the house — a crucifix on the wall, say, or a Jewish mezuzah affixed to the door frame — and record that information about the voter, as well as their perceived age and ethnicity.

Unlike in B.C., Canada’s privacy commissioner has no ability to audit political parties’ collection and use of personal information.

Therrien and Perrault are recommending that parties voluntarily comply with privacy standards, including:

Clearly explaining how Canadians’ personal information will be used and who it will be shared with.

Obtaining “meaningful consent” before collecting citizens’ personal information. Currently, parties can collect personal data on people without those people ever knowing.

Keeping personal information “only as long as necessary” and securely destroying it afterward.

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Under Bill C-76, the Liberals’ election law changes, parties must have and publish a privacy policy — although there is no independent oversight to ensure they actually follow those policies.

Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould has said political parties should be subject to privacy rules — but has refused to put that in legislation, saying the issue needs more study. The issue was last studied by the House of Commons ethics committee in 2018.

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