OPC investigating Facebook as gov’t responds to privacy concerns

OTTAWA — Revelations over the weekend that Facebook Inc. data was used inappropriately for political purposes are now being formally investigated by the privacy commissioner, as the Liberal government maintains it is on top of the situation. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) said in a Tuesday release that the investigation’s first step is figuring out whether Canadian data was among the 50 million Facebook user profiles found to have been exploited by data analytics company Cambridge Analytica which was used, in part, to influence the 2016 United States election. “The investigation will examine Facebook’s compliance with Canada’s federal private sector privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA),” the release said. It comes a day after three NDP members of parliament sent a letter to commissioner Daniel Therrien asking him to address whether Facebook complies with Canada’s privacy law following the breach and asking for a Parliamentary inquiry. Ethics critic Charlie Angus, Innovation critic Brian Masse and public safety critic Matthew Dubé appeared before reporters Tuesday morning asking the OPC to take an investigation further by exploring the data’s use for political purposes. On a broader scale, the MPs questioned how Parliament can hold large transnational internet companies — or those have a trove of user data —to account, and requested the government raise the issue at the G7 summit in June. “How do we, even within the Canadian parliament, hold … information giants to some level of accountability, given the transnational nature of what is becoming an information war and propaganda vehicles that are well beyond borders?” Angus asked at the press conference. Last week, The Wire Report reported on a suggestion that one way to do so would be to treat platforms like Facebook as broadcasters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was faced with the question of whether he would raise data protection at the summit during question period Tuesday. “I can assure the member that we are certainly going to do that, and in fact have already done it,” Trudeau said, addressing NDP MP Guy Caron’s question. He added that he has discussed internet companies’ responsibility for protecting data and the need to protect democratic institutions with his counterparts at previous G7 summits. “We are working on this issue right now with the Minister of Democratic Institutions,” he added. But in early 2016, Christopher Wylie — the Canadian who helped form Cambridge Analytica and who would end up revealing the allegations levelled against Facebook—was paid $100,000 for services performed under his company Eunoia Technologies for the Liberal Caucus Research Bureau, the latter’s managing director Melissa Cotton said in a release Wednesday. The pilot project included designing and organizing “national samples of Canadians to explore responses to Government policy priorities and other issues of national importance,” setting up “infrastructure to monitor the performance” of Liberal MPs in communicating with their constituents, recruiting constituents to obtain info on local and regional issues, and acquiring and setting up social media monitoring tools,” the release said. But after preliminary work by Wylie’s company was done, the bureau decided not to retain the services, the release said. “At no point did Eunoia Technologies have access to any data from Liberal Caucus Research Bureau,” the release added. As for what the government is currently doing, president of the treasury board Scott Brison told reporters Tuesday that the government was taking steps to address the matter. “Social media platforms have a responsibility to protect the privacy and personal data of citizens, and to protect the integrity of our electoral system where they operate,” Brison said, according to a transcript, adding the government has reached out to Facebook. Brison also said the government had asked the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) to engage on this and to remain “vigilant on an ongoing basis both working with social media platforms” and other governments. On Wednesday, Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg spoke up for the first time following the incident, outlining next steps in a Facebook post, including investigating all apps that had access to a large amount of data and banning from its platform those that don’t agree to an audit; further restricting access and the type of info to developers and removing access privileges if their app hasn’t been used in three months; and instituting an easier way for users to see and revoke permission to apps. Angus said that the government’s response is not enough. “Happy to see that the OPC is going to investigate,” he said on Twitter Inc.'s social media platform Wednesday. “But we need a public, parliamentary inquiry too — Liberal proposal to hand off to CSE not adequate.” — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

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OPC investigating Facebook as gov’t responds to privacy concerns

News | March 21, 2018

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