Alberta changes voter list rules, eyes new legislation after privacy breach

Alberta's government has implemented temporary adjustments to voter list regulations following a significant privacy breach. The province announced on Thursday a new policy for distributing its official voter list to political parties. The revised list will now only contain the count of registered voters in each electoral division and municipality, eliminating the inclusion of personal details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and unique voter identifiers.

This list, handled by Elections Alberta, is shared with political parties, legislators, candidates, and constituency associations for campaign and fundraising purposes. The move follows a separatist group's release of a database containing the private information of close to three million Albertans in the spring. The breach was traced back to a copy of the list provided to a fringe political party.

The new policy remains in force until the end of the year. According to the Justice Minister Mickey Amery's office, the government intends to introduce legislation this fall to safeguard Albertans' personal data.