Election success and voter privacy: a delicate equilibrium

This paper examines the extent to which Canadian political parties comply with legal requirements set out in the Elections Modernization Act, in the 2019 Federal Election. The two research questions explored will be as follows: did the introduction of the Elections Modernization Act fill the gap for appropriate voter data protection measures in federal elections; and what requirements gaps existed when compared to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This paper finds that the Elections Modernization Act was not effective at protecting voter privacy due to absence of enforcement measures, failure to require adequate detail within the privacy policies, exemptions from Canada’s existing privacy

policies, and the disregard for the metadata that exists within personal information. Additionally, it is argued that political parties do not comply with legal requirements and ultimately fall short on global best practices because of inadequate policies and lack of accountability measures.

These conclusions suggest that implementing adequate privacy policies is not aligned with the agendas of candidates, as the motivations of elected members and party officials is to (a) increase their influence on voters, and (b) reap success at the ballot box, which can be done more easily and accurately with voter data.