Canadians vulnerable to politically-motivated Facebook data abuse

Every like, share and click you perform on Facebook is already being used to target you with content and consumer advertising, but experts warn that activity can also be used to subtly (and sometimes dishonestly) influence your political beliefs, especially with a federal election looming next year.

Some are already sounding the alarm in Canada about the potential for data firms to harvest and repurpose individuals’ Facebook information for political and potentially nefarious purposes, just as one U.K. firm stands accused of doing to help Donald Trump’s election campaign.

It’s alleged that firm, Cambridge Analytica, covertly harvested data on 50 million users to help Trump’s presidential campaign build voter profiles for the U.S. election. A Channel 4 sting also captured video of the company’s top executive, Alexander Nix, suggesting unorthodox methods to help smear an individual’s political opponents. The company has vehemently denied all of the allegations against it.

Canada’s former top spy, Dick Fadden, points out that the federal Liberals, Conservatives and NDP have all contracted data firms of their own. Those firms do not face the same allegations as Cambridge Analytica, but their mere existence should be enough to make Canadians think twice about what they share online, Fadden suggests.