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e-1675 (Political parties)
E-petition
Initiated by Julia Szwarc from Ottawa, Ontario
Original language of petition: English
Petition to the Minister of Democratic Institutions
Whereas:
- A private predicted trait is defined as a piece of undisclosed information that is predicted using other data collected about someone;
- Predicted private traits can be used to generate psychological profiles of voters and micro-target political messages to citizens based on personality;
- When the uses of data collected about citizens is not made explicit and clear to them it undermines their privacy and is in contravention of Canada’s privacy laws;
- Information gathered without the free and informed consent of citizens does not conform to the legal and ethical standards that our leaders and political parties should be held to;
- The prediction of private traits of voters undermines citizen’s rights to privacy and to make free and informed political decisions; and
- Political messaging based on personality undermines political deliberation and may lead to messaging that prioritizes convincing potential voters based on their individual traits, rather than the merit of the representatives or policies.
We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the Minister of Democratic Institutions to bring political parties under the jurisdiction of existing privacy laws, allowing citizens to file complaints with an independent body regarding the use of their data by political parties. A code of conduct should be implemented before the upcoming Federal election that applies to political parties and registered third parties that prohibits the use of predicted private traits. Before gaining access to voter registration lists, registered political parties must agree to not predict the private traits of Canadian citizens for the purposes of political messaging.
- Open for signature
- May 16, 2018, at 9:57 a.m. (EDT)
- Closed for signature
- September 13, 2018, at 9:57 a.m. (EDT)
