Data-Driven Elections and Political Parties in Canada: Privacy Implications, Privacy Policies and Privacy Obligations

In light of the revelations concerning Cambridge Analytica, we are now in an era of heightened publicity and concern about the role of voter analytics in elections. Parties in Canada need to enhance their privacy management practices and commit to complying with national privacy principles in all their operations. As shown in this article’s comparative analysis of the privacy policies of federal and provincial political parties in Canada, policies are often difficult to find, unclear, and, with a couple of exceptions, do not address all the privacy principles. Accountability and complaints mechanisms are often not clearly publicized, and many are silent on procedures for the access and correction of data, and unsubscribing from lists. Vague and expansive statements of purpose are also quite common. However, this article shows that parties could comply with all 10 principles within the Canadian Standard Association (CSA)’s National Standard of Canada, upon which Canadian privacy law is based, without difficulty; though compliance will require a thorough process of self-assessment and a commitment across the political spectrum to greater transparency. The early experience in British Columbia (B.C.), where parties are regulated under the provincial Personal Information Protection Act, suggests that this process is beneficial for all concerned. In contrast to the system of self-regulation incorporated into the Elections Modernization Act, there is no inherent reason why parties could not be legally mandated to comply with all 10 principles, under the oversight of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

A crank-kinematics based engine cylinder pressure reconstruction model

A new inverse model is proposed for reconstructing steady-state and transient engine cylinder pressure using measured crank kinematics. An adaptive nonlinear time-dependent relationship is assumed between windowed-subsections of cylinder pressure and measured crank kinematics in a time-domain format (rather than in crank-angle-domain). This relationship comprises a linear sum of four separate nonlinear functions of crank jerk, acceleration, velocity, and crank angle. Each of these four nonlinear functions is obtained at each time instant by fitting separate m-term Chebychev polynomial expansions, where the total 4m instantaneous expansion coefficients are found using a standard (over-determined) linear least-square solution method. A convergence check on the calibration accuracy shows this initially improves as more Chebychev polynomial terms are used, but with further increase, the over-determined system becomes singular. Optimal accuracy Chebychev expansions are found to be of degree m=4, using 90 or more cycles of engine data to fit the model. To confirm the model accuracy in predictive mode, a defined measure is used, namely the ‘calibration peak pressure error’. This measure allows effective a priori exclusion of occasionally unacceptable predictions. The method is tested using varying speed data taken from a 3-cylinder DISI engine fitted with cylinder pressure sensors, and a high resolution shaft encoder. Using appropriately-filtered crank kinematics (plus the ‘calibration peak pressure error’), the model produces fast and accurate predictions for previously unseen data. Peak pressure predictions are consistently within 6.5% of target, whereas locations of peak pressure are consistently within ± 2.7˚ CA. The computational efficiency makes it very suitable for real-time implementation

Weak randomness completely trounces the security of QKD

In usual security proofs of quantum protocols the adversary (Eve) is expected to have full control over any quantum communication between any communicating parties (Alice and Bob). Eve is also expected to have full access to an authenticated classical channel between Alice and Bob. Unconditional security against any attack by Eve can be proved even in the realistic setting of device and channel imperfection. In this Letter we show that the security of QKD protocols is ruined if one allows Eve to possess a very limited access to the random sources used by Alice. Such knowledge should always be expected in realistic experimental conditions via different side channels

Privacy, surveillance, and the democratic potential of the social web

This chapter argues that theories about privacy would benefit from embracing deliberative democratic theory on the grounds that it addresses harms to democracy, and widens our understandings of privacy infringements in social networking environments. We fi rst explore how social networking services (SNS) have evolved through diff erent phases and how they enable political deliberation. Subsequently, we discuss more traditional individualistic and intersubjective theories of privacy in relation to social networking and point out their limitations in identifying and redressing social networking-related harms. We then critique emerging claims concerning the social value of privacy in the context of the social Web. Here we point out how these theories might identify non-individualized harms, yet, at the same time, suff er important challenges in application. We conclude by arguing that deliberative democratic theory can add some critical insights into the privacy harms encountered on the contemporary “social Web” that are only imperfectly understood by individualistic and social conceptions of privac

Implementation of the Multiple Point Principle in the Two-Higgs Doublet Model of type II

The multiple point principle (MPP) is applied to the non--supersymmetric two-Higgs doublet extension of the Standard Model (SM). The existence of a large set of degenerate vacua at some high energy scale caused by the MPP results in a few relations between Higgs self-coupling constants which can be examined at future colliders. The numerical analysis reveals that these MPP conditions constrain the mass of the SM--like Higgs boson to lie below 180 GeV for a wide set of MPP scales $\Lambda$ and $\tan\beta$.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, some minor changes to the tex

Quantum vortices and trajectories in particle diffraction

We investigate the phenomenon of the diffraction of charged particles by thin material targets using the method of the de Broglie-Bohm quantum trajectories. The particle wave function can be modeled as a sum of two terms $\psi=\psi_{ingoing}+\psi_{outgoing}$. A thin separator exists between the domains of prevalence of the ingoing and outgoing wavefunction terms. The structure of the quantum-mechanical currents in the neighborhood of the separator implies the formation of an array of \emph{quantum vortices}. The flow structure around each vortex displays a characteristic pattern called `nodal point - X point complex'. The X point gives rise to stable and unstable manifolds. We find the scaling laws characterizing a nodal point-X point complex by a local perturbation theory around the nodal point. We then analyze the dynamical role of vortices in the emergence of the diffraction pattern. In particular, we demonstrate the abrupt deflections, along the direction of the unstable manifold, of the quantum trajectories approaching an X-point along its stable manifold. Theoretical results are compared to numerical simulations of quantum trajectories. We finally calculate the {\it times of flight} of particles following quantum trajectories from the source to detectors placed at various scattering angles $\theta$, and thereby propose an experimental test of the de Broglie - Bohm formalism.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, accepted by IJB

Accountability and Transparency of Entrepreneurial Journalism: Unresolved ethical issues in crowdfunded journalism projects

Crowdfunding is a new business model in which journalists rely—and depend—on (micro-) payments by a large number of supporters to finance their reporting. In this form of entrepreneurial journalism the roles of publisher, fundraiser and journalist often overlap. This raises questions about conflicts of interest, accountability and transparency. The article presents the results of selected case studies in four different European countries—Germany (Krautreporter), Italy (Occhidellaguerra), the United Kingdom (Contributoria) and the Netherlands (De Correspondent)—as well as one US example (Kickstarter). The study used a two-step methodological approach: first a content analysis of the websites and the Twitter accounts with regard to practices of media accountability, transparency and user participation was undertaken. The aim was to investigate how far ethical challenges in crowdfunded entrepreneurial journalism are accounted for. Second, we present findings from semi-structured interviews with journalists from each crowdfunding. The study provides evidence about the ethical issues in this area, particularly in relation to production transparency and responsiveness. The study also shows that in some cases of crowdfunding (platforms), accountability is outsourced and implemented only through the audience participation

Practical quantum repeaters with linear optics and double-photon guns

We show how to create practical, efficient, quantum repeaters, employing double-photon guns, for long-distance optical quantum communication. The guns create polarization-entangled photon pairs on demand. One such source might be a semiconducter quantum dot, which has the distinct advantage over parametric down-conversion that the probability of creating a photon pair is close to one, while the probability of creating multiple pairs vanishes. The swapping and purifying components are implemented by polarizing beam splitters and probabilistic optical CNOT gates.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures ReVTe