There’s space for ‘positive’ political targeting, Wylie tells MPs

OTTAWA — Whistleblower and data scientist Christopher Wylie testified at the House ethics committee Tuesday, continuing to allege that data companies acted improperly in elections around the world, but also defending the use of data crunching during the Canadian political process. “You can have targeting that is positive for democracy because you are speaking to voters about something that they actually care about,” Wylie told the committee when asked what was the use of targeting political ads based on someone’s preferences. “If I’m a person in Nova Scotia, I might be not entirely concerned with, you know, wheat and farming policies in Saskatchewan.” Wylie spoke about his role in and viewpoint of the scandal which has embroiled Facebook Inc., U.K.-based SCL Group Inc.—as well as its subsidiaries—and Canadian company AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd. in multiple privacy investigations. Witnesses have testified at the ethics committee that these companies have allegedly attempted to influence international elections using stolen personal information and co-ordinate campaigns during Brexit, in violation of U.K. election law. When asked about the previous testimony of AggregateIQ’s heads, Zach Massingham and Jeff Silvester, who indicated they were not aware of foundational connections between their company and SCL and recently closed subsidiary Cambridge Analytica, Wylie seemed visibly shocked they would say that. “That—that could not be possibly true,” said Wylie. “To not know who your largest client is… I’m surprised they said that.” In an unusual move for a parliamentary committee, Wylie was sworn in at the beginning of his testimony. Wylie also denied, based on his understanding, that his original employment by the Liberal Party of Canada in 2009 ended because of privacy concerns, when pressed by Conservative MP Peter Kent. Kent asked about Wylie’s involvement with a 2016 Liberal Party pilot project. Wylie denied that he worked on psychographic targeting, like that used by Cambridge Analytica, for the Liberals. He said he helped develop on an attempt to measure online sentiment—more so to determine what policies to pursue, rather than change voter intention. Wylie said targeting political audiences based on the personal information collected online is a tool, useful for good and evil. He pointed to examples of reducing extremism and increasing a vote participation in young people as ways he thinks data analysis has been used for good. “So I think that we shouldn't necessarily treat social media or online communications as a bad thing,” said Wylie. “Just in the same way that you can have a knife and that can be a murder weapon or it can create a Michelin Star meal. It is a tool.” But Kent did not seem convinced. Speaking to media after the meeting, he compared Wylie to “the arsonist who sets a fire and then calls the fire department.” Admitting there need to be ways to counter the abuses, Wylie also suggested that more transparency is necessary. He proposed a system where every political ad would have details about who paid for it and what data was used in its creation. “In the same way that you require transparency for our donations and spending, require transparency for the use of information and advertising,” said Wylie. “So when a party puts out an ad online, it should have to report that and it should also have to report who is it going to.” Facebook announced a pilot project with similar measures in Canada last year. It requires information from groups looking to buy election-related advertising, including in some cases verification of their identity and location, as well as a “paid for by” disclosure link in every ad, with a link to more detailed information about who posted the ad. Concordia assistant professor and political data expert Fenwick McKelvey said he’s in support of such initiatives, but that there isn’t enough accountability in the sector, and giving more powers to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner(OPC) could fill the gaps, and take the responsibility off the users. The OPC recently released data collection guidelines for companies to maintain compliance with Canadian privacy regulations. He added there isn’t much evidence targeted methods offer the results those selling this type of advertising want campaigns to think. “The real truth of it is, advertising has very minimal effects and so you have to think about how much money you need to spend to have any impact,” said McKelvey in a telephone interview. “You're also just coping through a sea of about all these companies that are claiming that their new 44,000 variable points is a better way of targeting voters.” McKelvey believes that the root of the issue is found in the entire online advertising ecosystem, as highlighted by Jim Balsillie last week, with the ex-Research in Motion CEO warning about the surveillance economy. “Online advertising is a gong show,” said McKelvey. “Advertising has taken an incredible amount of information to be able to deliver a so-called public value, which is targeted advertising.” Speaking after the meeting, Kent said he was interested in setting limits to what data is used to track voting habits. “In the past it has been normal to see perhaps five or 10 data points of a particular voter used by a political party to try and influence, to advertise directly to them,” said Kent. “As said, AggregateIQ was using up to 500 data points of individuals, and I would say that any Canadian would agree that's a gross invasion of privacy.” — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

There’s space for ‘positive’ political targeting, Wylie tells MPs

Broadcast | May 30, 2018

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There’s space for ‘positive’ political targeting, Wylie tells MPs

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