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Leadership Candidate Stone Backs Online Data Marketer

British privacy commission concerns about Victoria company’s role in Brexit campaign are ‘routine’ audit, says BC Liberal contender.

Andrew MacLeod 19 Jan 2018TheTyee.ca

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.

Despite being under investigation by privacy officials in two countries, AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd. is a British Columbia success story, says BC Liberal leadership candidate Todd Stone, whose campaign has hired the company.

“AIQ is one of the best digital marketing companies in North America,” Stone told reporters at the B.C. legislature Thursday. “They’re actually a terrific example of the talent that exists in the tech sector in British Columbia.”

AggregateIQ gained some notoriety following the Brexit vote in 2016 when campaign disclosures showed that Vote Leave campaigners spent £3.5 million — about $5.75 million — with the company headquartered in downtown Victoria.

In May, the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, announced a formal investigation “into the use of data analytics for political purposes” by AggregateIQ and other organizations.

The investigation is complicated, wrote Denham, who previously held a similar position in B.C. “It’s a complex and far-reaching investigation, involving over 30 organisations including political parties and campaigns, data companies and social media platforms.”

In B.C., the province’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner is reviewing whether AggregateIQ is complying with the Personal Information Protection Act, privacy legislation that covers the private sector.

On Thursday, Stone said he believed Denham’s investigation is a “routine” audit. “There have been no allegations made, there’s no charges or allegations, no formal investigation,” Stone said. “I continue to have tremendous confidence in what they are capable of and what they’ve done for our campaign.”

Stone said AggregateIQ’s job is to oversee his campaign’s digital marketing.

“The website, all the contact we have with party members through that website, through the direct marketing emails that are sent out, the content that’s put in there, as well as the pictures, how that’s all wrapped into the analytics that we’re tracking and so forth,” he said.

“It’s highly sophisticated, and again representative of the talent that they have within their company and representative of the talent in the tech sector in B.C. My understanding is a couple of the other campaigns had wanted to engage them as well and they opted to work with us, so we’re very pleased with the work that they’ve done.”

The Tyee reported last week that before going to work for Stone, AggregateIQ offered its services to Mike de Jong’s leadership campaign, but was turned down for “moral” reasons. Campaign strategist Stephen Carter said, “There’d been a bunch of mess around them with the various campaigns they’d been associated with... I just didn’t feel comfortable they weren’t going to get us in trouble.”

AggregateIQ develops advertising to be used on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, then targets messages to audiences who are likely to be receptive.

The Tyee reported in March on the links between AggregateIQ and SCL Group, whose website says it has worked to influence election outcomes in 19 countries. Its associated company in the U.S., Cambridge Analytica, has worked on a wide range of campaigns, including Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

AggregateIQ’s roots are in the federal and provincial Liberal parties in Canada. Its CEO is Zack Massingham, who reportedly worked as a volunteer on Mike de Jong’s losing BC Liberal leadership campaign in 2011. Chief operating officer Jeff Silvester was executive assistant to former Liberal and Reform Party MP Keith Martin.  [Tyee]

Read more: BC Politics

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