The BC Greens say they worked with Victoria-based company AggregateIQ (AIQ), which has been tied to Cambridge Analytica — a company at the centre of a data-harvesting operation that targeted millions of Facebook users before the 2016 U.S. election.
The BC Green Party reviewed its relationship with AIQ to see if any data had been misused.
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The review came after reports detailing AIQ’s ties to Cambridge Analytica, and to the U.K.’s Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum — a relationship now under scrutiny over whether the Victoria-based firm helped them cheat in the referendum.
“These allegations concerned us, because we take the security of your personal information very seriously,” read a release from the party.
The BC Greens contracted AIQ in January 2016 to work on a new voter contact database and a website, but according to the party, the relationship ended by August of that year after it was determined that the project “was not meeting” its priorities.
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AIQ was given access to the party’s voter database under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), according to the release.
The review looked at documents and correspondence between the party and AIQ. The party also received written confirmation from AIQ that is data had been destroyed in August 2016.
The Greens also consulted with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. as part of their review.
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“Although political parties are not required to disclose concerns or reviews such as this, particularly when those reviews do not reveal anything improper, we felt it was important to let you know about the actions we are taking to ensure a high standard for the protection of your personal information,” read a release from the party.
The BC Greens said they will “continue to improve our policies and procedures regarding the protection of personal information.
During the review, the party also said that staff changes that happened since 2016 have made it tougher to determine the specifics of the work that AIQ did with them.
As such, the party is hiring an IT staffer who will be charged with clearly documenting the details of work done by third-party contractors who access their data.
On Tuesday, Cambridge Analytica said it has not had any communication with AIQ since December 2015.
- With files from Jesse Ferreras
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