Canada's NDP

Skip to main content

April 25th, 2019

Angus’ Complaint Well-Founded, Will Support Privacy Commissioner Legal Battle Against Facebook

Charlie Angus, the NDP Ethics Critic, made the following statement:

“Today’s report of findings from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia on their investigation into my complaint against Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica breach shows that a year later, nothing has really changed at Facebook. I will be giving the Privacy Commissioner of Canada my consent to move forward with a complaint against Facebook at the Federal Court.
Facebook failed to take basic precautions or have adequate policies in place to protect users’ information – even though a 2009 investigation by the Privacy Commissioner found many of the same problems that led to the Cambridge Analytica breach.
More surprisingly, Facebook has refused to implement the Commissioners’ recommendations, and the Commissioners warn that there is still a high risk that Canadians’ personal information can be used and shared without their knowledge or consent.
Facebook has been under the spotlight for over a year now for their privacy and business practices, from the Cambridge Analytica breach to the UN accusing the platform of having played a determining role in inciting a genocide in Myanmar.
That they are refusing to actually improve their privacy policies at the direction of our regulators shows more cavalier disregard for not just Canadian laws, but for their own users’ privacy rights.
This Liberal government’s cozy relationship with the American tech giants and their lobbyists means that they always put Canadians’ privacy rights second. We need a government that will be willing to implement the all-party recommendations of the Ethics Committee and stand up to the web giants and their disregard for Canadian law.
It’s wrong that the Liberals and Conservatives always prefer to let private companies self-regulate instead of requiring them to do the right thing by putting the safety and privacy of Canadians before profits. New Democrats will prioritize the safety and privacy of Canadians. It’s time for a government that’s on your side.”