The Competition Bureau is investigating the data practices of political parties in Canada following a complaint from the Centre for Digital Rights (CDR).
The bureau is looking into an allegation that suggests that major political parties made deceptive statements to the public, as reported by The Financial Post.
The CDR, which is an organization founded by Canadian entrepreneur Jim Balsillie, has made five legal complaints to various regulatory enforcement agencies in the country. The organization wants the agencies to look into how political parties use Canadians’ private data.
It wants political parties to have to abide by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which would require changes to the actual act. Other organizations in Canada already have to obey the act.
In Canada, it is believed that political parties don’t have to abide by the rules laid out in PIPEDA because it doesn’t explicitly say so in the text. But, the CDR believes that politicians should be obeying these laws anyway.
The Financial Post notes that if political parties had to obey PIPEDA, they would have to reveal the information they have on a person if a request is submitted.
Source: The Financial Post
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