B.C. Green Party says member data safe after contract with AggregateIQ

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VANCOUVER — The B.C. Green Party says it does not believe its members’ personal information was stolen, after the party worked with a Victoria-based tech company that’s mired in an international privacy scandal.

Executive director Laura Lavin says the Greens contracted AggregateIQ between January and August 2016 to create a new website and voter database.

The party has received written confirmation from the company that it destroyed any data in its possession when the contract ended, Lavin said.

“Like anybody, we are paying attention to what’s going on in the media. So it was pretty much over the last week or 10 days, when more and more stories started coming out, that we started doing a review of our relationship with AIQ,” Lavin said in an interview.

AggregateIQ created a website for the B.C. Greens, but the party ended the contract because the company could not complete the database within the party’s timeframe, said Lavin.

The party has reviewed all of its correspondences, as well as the non-disclosure agreement it required the company to sign at the time, she said.

It obtained written confirmation that the data was destroyed, after consulting the Office of the B.C. Privacy Commissioner.

Lavin said the nature of information the company would have access to varied by member, but may have included names, addresses, email addresses, level of support for the party and particular issues of interest.

The Green Party posted a statement on its website explaining the process, emailed each member and will send hard-copies to those who are inaccessible by email, she said.

So far, three members have asked that the party delete their profiles from the system.

AggregateIQ faces accusations that it played a role in influencing Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

Canadian whistleblower Christopher Wylie has also alleged that the firm used algorithms developed by Cambridge Analytica, a company he says improperly harvested personal data from more than 50-million Facebook users to help Donald Trump win the U.S. presidency.

In a statement posted on its website this week, AggregateIQ denies any connection to Cambridge Analytica and says it works in full compliance with the jurisdictions where it operates.