Amid allegations that the personal data of 50 million Facebook users was improperly accessed as part of a plot to influence voters ahead of the U.S. election, Canada鈥檚 Public Safety minister says the social media giant could be more forthcoming with governments when it comes to information about data security.
鈥淭hey have an enormous number of very serious questions to answer,鈥� Ralph Goodale, whose department oversees cybersecurity threats, told CTV Question Period host Evan Solomon. 鈥淭he stock market has indicated a good deal of doubt about what has transpired and come to light over the course of the last week or 10 days.鈥�
Facebook shares plummeted on March 19 after news of the alleged data harvesting first broke.
Goodale said the issue of cybersecurity will likely feature prominently at the June G7 summit in Charlevoix, Que., and at an October meeting of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which consists of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
鈥淭hey will have some very pointed questions,鈥� Goodale said of Canada鈥檚 allies. 鈥淎nd members of the global internet forum on counterterrorism, which includes Facebook and Google and Twitter and Microsoft, they will all be there in those meetings.鈥�
Goodale, however, demurred when asked if he has lost trust in companies like Facebook.
鈥淲ell,鈥� he said, 鈥渨e鈥檝e got some very tough questions to ask.鈥�
Social media as a security threat
Dick Fadden served as the director of CSIS between 2009 and 2013 before working as a deputy minister in the Department of National Defence and as a national security advisor to former prime minister Stephen Harper.
According to Fadden, social media services like Facebook have become security threats in two ways.
鈥淭he first way, you have to operate on the assumption that we want to live in a fully functioning democracy,鈥� Fadden said on Question Period. 鈥淚f people鈥檚 information can be used without their informed consent, and if it can then be manipulated to change their votes or their policy preferences, that puts democracy at risk and that is fundamentally a national security issue. Secondly, I would say if Facebook has all this information, do we honestly think that some of our adversaries, nation states, don鈥檛 have it? That鈥檚 doubly concerning.鈥�
Citing privacy concerns, Fadden added that he would not have a personal Facebook account. He did, however, say that the social media site remains safe for most Canadians.
鈥淏ut it depends on the level of risk that you鈥檙e prepared to take,鈥� he cautioned.
A wake-up call
Marcella Munro is a veteran campaign manager and political communications expert. Collecting elector data, she says, has always been a part of politics.
鈥淧olitical campaigns have always been about getting data about your voters,鈥� she told Question Period. 鈥淥f course, nowadays, it鈥檚 a lot faster, a lot easier to get that data.鈥�
Munro calls the recent revelations about Facebook 鈥渁 good wake-up call for the public.鈥�
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important the public understand that when you are on a computer, whether on Facebook, whether you鈥檙e Googling, you鈥檙e data is being harvested,鈥� she said.
Watch Question Period Sunday mornings on CTV, 麻豆传媒 Channel, CTVNEWS.ca, and 麻豆传媒 GO at 11 a.m. ET, 10 a.m. CT, 9 a.m. MT and 8 a.m. PT
