The Surveillance Party of Canada (SPOC) is committed to the principle that Canadians should be monitored and tracked as extensively as possible in order to advance critical public policy goals. We believe that our streets and homes can be safer, our health care system more efficient, our educational institutions more effective, our businesses more profitable and technological innovation more vibrant, if public bodies and private corporations were allowed to collect, retain, analyze and disseminate almost any personal data without restriction. After all, if individuals have nothing to hide, then they should have nothing to fear.
We believe that the Canadian public interest and our economic prosperity have been unnecessarily constrained in Canada by overly restrictive, self-serving and pointless privacy laws. We call for the repeal of all such laws.
Consistent with our obligations under the 2018 Elections Modernization Act, as amended by S. 39 of the 2023 Budget Implementation Act, SPOC has developed the attached Privacy Policy, which describes (as mandated by Sec. 385(2)(k)) how we collect, use and disclose personal information on Canadian voters and non-voters. We also believe our policy is consistent with the joint guidance issued by the Chief Electoral Officer and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. We have, however, overridden their advice to craft a policy consistent with so-called “international standards” favoring a made-in-Canada approach better attuned to the security interests of Canadians.
As directed, this policy has been published on our website, as one of the conditions of our registration as a federal political party. We will inform the Chief Electoral Officer of any future changes to this policy.
PRIVACY POLICY OF THE SURVEILLANCE PARTY OF CANADA
For the purposes of this policy, and consistent with the recent amendment to the Canada Elections Act contained in the recent Budget Implementation Act personal information means “information about an identifiable individual” (Sec. 385.2(1))
Further, and according to Sec. 385.2(2), SPOC understands that: “In order to participate in public affairs by endorsing one or more of its members as candidates and supporting their election, any registered party or eligible party, as well as any person or organization acting on the party’s behalf, including the party’s candidates, electoral district associations, officers, agents, employees, volunteers and representatives, may, subject to this Act and any other applicable federal Act, collect, use, disclose, retain and dispose of personal information in accordance with the party’s privacy policy.”
Accordingly, and in compliance with the requirements of the Elections Modernization Act, SPOC makes the following statements, declaring its practices, and its commitments to abide by them.
A statement indicating the types of personal information that the party collects and how it collects that information.
The SPOC collects any personal information it can get its hands on or about any Canadian citizen or resident. This may include (but is not limited to):
- Basic name and address information provided by Elections Canada in advance of each election. Like other federal political parties (FPPs), we combine this address information with other contact information purchased from Directory services such as Canada 411. Like other federal political parties, we employ this information as the framework for our Voter Relationship Management (VRM) system to which we add personal information from the following sources.
- Information collected during canvassing. Our team of canvassers is trained to record your responses to their questions, to enter any other information observed about the household (e.g. the presence of children; the type of car on the property; the presence of an alarm system or security camera; any religious symbols; and any other information that might reveal political leanings, values or attitudes). This information is transferred to our Voter Relationship Management system via our dedicated smart phone app – MINIEYE.
- Information scraped from social media. We employ data broker companies to capture personal information entered on social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook (Meta), and Tiktok. We believe that this information is public information and can legitimately be harvested and analyzed by organizations such as SPOC.
- Information revealed through polls, surveys and petitions — either conducted by ourselves or by third parties.
- Information purchased from commercial data brokers. SPOC is particularly interested in individuals who may have purchased: household alarm systems; webcams; nanny cams; and other devices for monitoring people and possessions.
A statement indicating how the party protects personal information under its control.
We regard the information captured by the SPOC as our proprietary data, and therefore take strong measures to protect it from unauthorized access. These measures include: password protected access controls for staff and volunteers; strong encryption when data is in transit and in storage; and physical measures at campaign offices.
A statement indicating how the party uses personal information under its control and under what circumstances that personal information may be sold to any person or entity
Similar to other FPPs, we use this information to profile the entire Canadian electorate and to score each individual on a 10-point scale ranging from the extreme civil libertarian/privacy advocate on one end of the scale (-5) to the security/surveillance sympathizer (+5) at the other. We use this proprietary profiling system to prioritize our resources, and to identify those individuals who might be most persuadable by a pro-surveillance or pro-security message. We then serve those individuals carefully crafted micro-targeting via social media channels, emails, texts and other media.
The circumstances under which the SPOC sells personal information are directed by our judgement about whether we can make money, and reduce our fund-raising burden in a way that is consistent with our political program. In the past, we have sold data from our system to companies in the security industry, to those offering encryption products, and to those which market everyday household surveillance devices. We will continue to do so.
Similar to other FPPs, we also transfer membership and donor lists to Facebook for the purpose of constructing LookAlike audiences, to whom we target relevant messaging.
A statement indicating the training concerning the collection and use of personal information to be given to any employee of the party who could have access to personal information under the party’s control
SPOC’s volunteers are trained in various techniques to solicit the personal opinions of Canadians on political issues. These techniques include basic snooping during door-to-door canvassing; subtle encouragements during telephone marketing; and trolling social media sites and chat rooms for likely supporters.
A statement indicating the party’s practices concerning the collection and use of personal information created from online activity, and its use of cookies
SPOC collects information about anyone who follows us on Twitter, friends us on Facebook, or otherwise contacts us through our website. We also capture information on followers and friends (your social graph). Cookies from ourselves, and our third-party data analytical companies, will be logged on your computer whenever you visit our website. These are used to measure audience engagement and to understand how our party can enhance the quality of the services and information provided on our website. Non-personalized ads may then be delivered based on the content you view and your location. Personalized content and ads may be delivered with more relevant results and recommendations, based on your past engagement on our website or online activity more generally. We also use cookies and data to tailor the experience to be age, gender and ethnically appropriate.
In keeping with standard business practice and the prevailing surveillance ethos of “the better we know you, the better we can serve you,” tracking on-line behavior by any means possible is the default. You can turn off the tracking mechanisms, but we advise against this because it is not in our interest, and we believe not in yours either. For this reason we don’t make the “Off” switch easy to find, nor does it disable all forms of tracking. If you insist on proceeding further, go ahead, but it isn’t easy. Besides, you are probably not going to vote for us anyway.
The name and contact information of a person to whom concerns regarding the party’s policy for the protection of personal information can be addressed
Within the SPOC, it is been challenging to appoint an individual who has either the expertise, interest or desire to perform the role of privacy officer. Anybody who wishes to ask questions about this policy should, therefore, write to our Chief Security Officer: security@surveillanceparty.ca and he will make the appropriate judgements about your concerns, and respond to your inquiry in a timely fashion.
Please also note that nothing in the Canada Elections Act, nor any other federal statute, obliges us to allow individuals to access their personal information, and to correct it if it is inaccurate, incomplete or obsolete. Any such requests will be ignored by the SPOC.
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Developed and submitted pursuant to Canada Elections Act, S.C. 2000, c. 9, ss. 385(2)(k),385(4), 385.1. This privacy policy has been approved by the SPOC board of directors, and approved by legal counsel as being consistent with our obligations under the Elections Act.
For added clarity, this post is “manifestly distributed, transmitted or published for the purpose of parody or satire” (Canada Elections Act, Sec. 481(3))