Who is Fran anyway?

For those of us who have worked in marketing analytics for a while, reports of the Federal Conservative's voter segmentation scheme at first seems like pretty standard practice. They use geodemographic data to understand the various voter constituencies, and they are using that knowledge to identify their best prospects and target swing votes.

However, on second glance, this doesn't seem at all like what my bank is doing to determine that I'd be a good candidate for a line of credit.

Apparently, the Conservatives are not just getting their data from third party sources (like the Census) and information volunteered by their supporters (e.g. party registrations and voluntary surveys). Acccording to a recent report in the Globe and Mail, the Tories have enlisted our neighbours to spy on us; apparently they ask sports team coaches, community activists, and party faithful, to report information on voters to the party's data collectors . They call this FRAN: Friends, Relatives, Acquaintances and Neighbours. This data includes such things as number of children, ethnicity/relegion, political leanings, and education level.

I believe this is very different information than that voluntarily supplied to organizations through the course of a business transaction. We can chose to do business with a company and chose what information to supply - not so when it is being reported by our 'friends". Private sector companies are also legally obligated to allow us to opt-out of the use of that information. Apparently, however, PIPEDA legislation does not apply to political parties - only to businesses.

What is perhaps most worrying is who is doing this. This is the government of the day, and they are collecting personal information on our relegious and political views. Consider this description of the Stalin era in Russia: "The secret police actively encouraged people to inform on neighbours, work mates etc." Personally, I think it sounds a little too familiar.

I think Toronto lawyer Ben Arkin would agree - he received a Rosh Hashanah card from Mr. Harper whom he has never met. Governments tagging you by your religion is a very slippery slope.


P.S. We are having an election in Canada too, for our US readers.