[dblohm7]

Respectfully to the American "this isn't that big a deal crowd": you're looking at it from the perspective that this is a commonplace occurrence in your country.

IANAL but I have filed privacy complaints in the past at both the federal and provincial level. For the last 26 years in Canada it has been illegal for personal information to be bought and sold on a whim; the person to whom the information applies is considered to be the owner and is entitled to be in control of how their information is used, and may revoke consent.

You have an entire country where institutions operate under the expectation that personally identifiable information isn't easily available like this (sans the usual data breaches). Those institutions are probably less prepared to deal with this data floating around everywhere than in a society where it is essentially a free-for-all.

[adamiscool8]

In Canada, for most of the 20th century until maybe 15 years ago, your PII was in a big book that lived at everybody's house and the library unless you specifically opted out.

[tensor]

Thank goodness Canada doesn't use its past mistakes as a bar that it's ok to go back to.

[pessimizer]

> unless you specifically opted out.

They don't give you that option when you vote.

[MichaelBurjack]

Being on the electors list is optional, is something you can opt-in to (and opt-out of), and is not required in order to vote in Alberta.

[rjrjrjrj]

And?

[adamiscool8]

It was a public safety disaster that the country is still trying to recover from.

[rjrjrjrj]

Surely you comprehend the difference here.

[iinnPP]

When did you last try with the OPC? I also have experience (a few) and noted a sharp decline post covid. My first go was for Freedom Mobile (success) but the representative from the OPC was borderline harassing me to accept the currently (STILL) completely broken authentication. When I tried again it was 'out of jurisdiction' and no sort of appeal process.

Calling it functional is not something I would do. Judges are also extremely critical of the compensation process a have essentially been forced to take it over. It's also still too new and risky so lawyers are reluctant unless it's paid up front.

If anyone with any say is reading this, I can still break into any Freedom Mobile account in under a minute, including the admin ones.

[ls612]

My understanding is that voter registration data is a matter of public record in most (all?) states so the idea that it wouldn’t be a matter of public record north of the border is itself odd to me.

[MichaelBurjack]

Being on the electors list is optional, is something you can opt-in to (and opt-out of), and is not required in order to vote in Alberta.

There are many reasons an individual may choose to not be on the list (eg. domestic abuse situations).

[soco]

For us outsiders, can you shortly explain what's the practical point of such a list then? Some historical vestige maybe?

[MichaelBurjack]

Being on the list makes it a bit more convenient when you go to vote. Since you're on the list, you only need one other piece of photo ID if I recall correctly.

If you're not on the list, the process is a bit longer, requires filling out an attestation and requires more ID. But even so, probably doesn't take more than an extra 5 minutes or so. But if everyone had to do it this way, would certainly slow things down.

So by doing it this way, it makes it fast for folks that aren't jeopardizing their safety by being on an electors list (whose distribution is supposed to be controlled, but I wouldn't count on it being fully confidential); while allowing folks that do need more confidentiality to not be on the list and still be able to vote without undue hassle.

[throwaway27448]

> You have an entire country where institutions operate under the expectation that personally identifiable information isn't easily available like this

I actually look like this as the opposite—SSNs, emails, phone numbers, and credit card numbers are more or less public, or at least relatively easy to guess, buy, or find online, and addresses are quite easy to find if you don't hide behind an LLC. I treat all as if they're public information and I assume our institutions do as well.

[mschuster91]

> I treat all as if they're public information and I assume our institutions do as well.

lolnope, at least not banks. Unlike here in the EU, where you need to provide some sort of physical ID to even open a bank account, much less get a line of credit...