Professor Pal, it's good to have you back. My goodness, we've had you here on electoral boundaries and electoral reform, and we have you here on this. Your testimony is always very interesting and challenging.
I don't know if you'd agree with this, but sometimes I wind up being persuaded the more I think about it, so I'll ask you to start with what is not my central issue. The sale of data by parties has been brought up over and over again by a number of people, including you, as something that is permissible but ought not to be. I assume that this is really mostly simply an accidental result of the fact that the normal rules relating to the use of data don't apply to parties; that is to say, it's not something that's been put in there specifically. It's just there as a happenstance consideration.
I see you nodding. Perhaps you are just trying to understand my question, but here's what I want to ask. Is the danger really that parties will sell the data? After all, as a party, you have to reveal your sources of income, meaning that the secret sale of data is highly unlikely.
Is it not likely or more worrisome that parties will share the data with somebody else and, in particular, that they will share the data with somebody who is going to provide some kind of service to the party, but who is going to manipulate the data in some way to uncover, say, that right now is the right point in a campaign to hit people who have a particular interest in issue X versus issue Y, in whatever method is being used by the parties? That will provide a way in which nuanced data about individuals leaks out. Does that not seem like the greater risk?