Election Target - Election prediction website!

15 posts / 0 new

Sun, 2009-10-25 17:50

ElectionTarget ElectionTarget's picture

Hi everyone. Given the significant prominence and contributions of the Rabble community to the political culture of Canada, I wanted to welcome each and every one of you to check out our new website, Election Target (www.electiontarget.com)!

To give a brief summary of the website, Election Target allows registered users to predict the upcoming elections in individual ridings and districts, the overall election result (eg. Liberal Minority, Conservative Minority), submit comments for these districts, and get details such as past election performances by parties/candidates. Predictions that users make qualify them to be eligible for some awesome contests, including a $100 Amazon.ca gift card giveaway that we're giving away at the end of the next Canadian election. The site covers the federal and provincial levels, and isn't restricted by country either! We'll be adding more content as the site matures too! the teambehind the site is extremely committed to fairness and non-partisanship in the operation of the website.

The site has been public since mid-September, and is currently tracking the upcoming federal election in Canada, as well as the special elections being held south of the border in Massachusetts, New Jersey & Virginia.

Finally, in addition to welcoming any Rabble visitors to the site, I'd like to extend the same invitation to your community that was extended to the Blogging Tories by welcoming any suggestions and/or improvements you'd like to see for the site. Please submit any feedback here in this thread so we can know your thoughts!

Cheers,

Matthew Campbell
Webmaster & Founder,
Election Target

Sun, 2009-10-25 18:46

bagkitty

Well a variation of the game "whack a mole" would be a welcome addition. Of course I am irreverent. But I would defend the suggestion by suggesting tabs be kept on which users select which which heads to pop out of the holes... it could help explains the margins of error.

Mon, 2009-10-26 00:09

ottawaobserver

Thanks for letting us know, Matthew. I'll be sure and take a look.

Mon, 2009-10-26 03:53

Ken Burch

I love the fact that the poll give people the option of predicting minority governments for not only the Bloc and the Greens, but also for the Christian Heritage and Marxist-Leninist parties.

It won't let you predict a Christian-Maoist coalition government, though. Darn.

Mon, 2009-10-26 17:35

David Young

After looking at some of the predictions on this site, one can only conclude that election target is as biased to the Conservatives as Election Prediction Project is biased towards the Liberals.

Mon, 2009-10-26 17:51

Slumberjack

ElectionTarget wrote:
I'd like to extend the same invitation to your community that was extended to the Blogging Tories by welcoming any suggestions and/or improvements you'd like to see for the site.

Redirect any self identified 'blogging tories' to alternate websites. I have a few in mind if you decide to take up on the suggested improvement.

Mon, 2009-10-26 21:11

ottawaobserver

David Young wrote:

After looking at some of the predictions on this site, one can only conclude that election target is as biased to the Conservatives as Election Prediction Project is biased towards the Liberals.

OK, but is that because it's very early days yet, and there have been a few more Blogging Tories visit there so far, David?

Mon, 2009-10-26 21:25

ElectionTarget ElectionTarget's picture

David Young wrote:

After looking at some of the predictions on this site, one can only conclude that election target is as biased to the Conservatives as Election Prediction Project is biased towards the Liberals.

David, it is our number one goal in the election coverage section to ensure that Election Target is not inherently biased to any particular political philosophy or party, and that it is why, as Ken noted, our prediction options are as extensive as possible and don't even acknowledge the "major party/fringe party" dichotomy. Having a lot of Blogging Tories join in early October naturally swayed the site's predictions so far, but it is my hope that there will be some balance by having communities like Rabble contribute.

On that note, since I made this post yesterday on Rabble, the national prediction has gone from 168 Conservative seats down to 163. As we move closer to the federal election, I'd be willing to predict that all users, in the interest of winning the Amazon.ca gift card contest, will move closer to what the actual results will be by the time that Election Day approaches. Because of how seriously we're taking this issue though, if anyone here has other ideas of how to ensure the site remains resonably free of bias, please feel free to let me know in this thread.

Cheers!

Mon, 2009-10-26 21:36

Pundit

The colours are garish.

Mon, 2009-10-26 21:37

#10

ottawaobserver

Yes, I think it's helpful to distinguish between the views of its first users on the one hand, and anything that might be making the site itself biased on the other. I didn't see anything in the latter category during my quick visit.

Mon, 2009-10-26 22:02

#11

RP.

David Young wrote:
After looking at some of the predictions on this site, one can only conclude that election target is as biased to the Conservatives as Election Prediction Project is biased towards the Liberals.

If this is the Matt Campbell I know, if I'm not mistaken, he's as Liberal as the day is long. ;)

Tue, 2009-10-27 18:49

#12

Sean in Ottawa

crap- I went to the site and registered-- then I read what passes for a privacy policy--Read this:

"* We will collect and use of personal information solely with the objective of fulfilling those purposes specified by us and for other compatible purposes, unless we obtain the consent of the individual concerned or as required by law."

No, they don't say what their purposes actually are. Translation -- we will use your information for whatever we feel like.

I got a little suspicious when I saw they want your home address-- how on earth could they need that with unit number for the site- they say to contact you if you win-- really like an email is not enough?

Now how does that answer the legislative requirements?

"PIPEDA gives individuals the right to see and correct any personal information about them collected by companies in the course of their commercial activities. These provisions state that businesses must inform consumers of who is collecting the information, why the information is being gathered, and for what purposes it will be used."

It doesn't. They need to say what those purposes are. So for all we know their purpose could be just to collect and use your information. The implication that they use the infomraiton only for the site is made but it is only an implication there is nothing saying that in the privacy policy which allows them to designate any purpose. Elsewhere on the site they say they do not give your informaiton to third parties-- but not in the privacy policy itself. What's a third party anyway we don't know who they are-- for all we know this could be a Conservative party address collection machine.

I regret having registered giving them my personal information now. If you are thinking of joining this site-- wait for them to get their privacy policy in line with legislation.

Here is their entire privacy policy found under "terms" at the bottom of the page.

3. Privacy

Election Target collects information, including personal contact, address and prediction information, which is governed under the laws of the Province of Ontario. You acknowledge that Election Target is not responsible for any information that might be obtained by any third party due to illegal activities (such as hacking).

Your privacy is very important to us. Accordingly, we have developed this Policy in order for you to understand how we collect, use, communicate and disclose and make use of personal information. The following outlines our privacy policy.

* We will collect and use of personal information solely with the objective of fulfilling those purposes specified by us and for other compatible purposes, unless we obtain the consent of the individual concerned or as required by law.
* We will only retain personal information as long as necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes.
* We will collect personal information by lawful and fair means and, where appropriate, with the knowledge or consent of the individual concerned.
* Personal data should be relevant to the purposes for which it is to be used, and, to the extent necessary for those purposes, should be accurate, complete, and up-to-date.
* We will protect personal information by reasonable security safeguards against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.
* We will make readily available to customers information about our policies and practices relating to the management of personal information.

We are committed to conducting our business in accordance with these principles in order to ensure that the confidentiality of personal information is protected and maintained.

Tue, 2009-10-27 19:44

#13

mtm

I make a point of not registering for ill-conceived, horribly web-coded, spam banner-ad laden sites with no apparent purpose...

So I think I'm safe.

(Sorry for the sarcasm, I just couldn't resist. This is awful)

Wed, 2009-10-28 19:02

#14

ElectionTarget ElectionTarget's picture

Sean in Ottawa wrote:

crap- I went to the site and registered-- then I read what passes for a privacy policy--Read this:

"* We will collect and use of personal information solely with the objective of fulfilling those purposes specified by us and for other compatible purposes, unless we obtain the consent of the individual concerned or as required by law."

No, they don't say what their purposes actually are. Translation -- we will use your information for whatever we feel like.

I got a little suspicious when I saw they want your home address-- how on earth could they need that with unit number for the site- they say to contact you if you win-- really like an email is not enough?

Now how does that answer the legislative requirements?

"PIPEDA gives individuals the right to see and correct any personal information about them collected by companies in the course of their commercial activities. These provisions state that businesses must inform consumers of who is collecting the information, why the information is being gathered, and for what purposes it will be used."

It doesn't. They need to say what those purposes are. So for all we know their purpose could be just to collect and use your information. The implication that they use the infomraiton only for the site is made but it is only an implication there is nothing saying that in the privacy policy which allows them to designate any purpose. Elsewhere on the site they say they do not give your informaiton to third parties-- but not in the privacy policy itself. What's a third party anyway we don't know who they are-- for all we know this could be a Conservative party address collection machine.

I regret having registered giving them my personal information now. If you are thinking of joining this site-- wait for them to get their privacy policy in line with legislation.

Sean, as founder and webmaster of the Election Target site, I want to ensure that any visitors who register with us have their privacy concerns addressed. The policies that you quote are pretty standard for websites and, from what I was told by the fine people who set up those policies for the site, are sufficent for provincial law (Ontario). Admittedly, I'm not a very trusting person myself when it comes to privacy policies and found what the law required to be a bunch of jumble, but if you didn't mind, I'd be open to addressing any privacy loophole concerns that you, or other members here have.

The information we collect, including address information, is to ensure legitimate accounts are being set up (one scenario of a political party setting up hundreds of fake accounts in order to bias the result came to mind when the site was being set up). As the policies indicate, we won't even bend the rules by allowing third parties (a standard legal term that is defined as a)not the user signing up and b)not Election Target staff) access to our information, even in order to work on our behalf.

As you can imagine, from our point of view, it'll be downright impossible to prove the non-existance of something (in this case, that something being inappropriate usage of the account information we keep). Even Rabble's privacy policy is similarly structured and would face the same challenges; there are only so many ways that a site can say that information will only be used for the purposes for which the website itself was created. With that in mind, if you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to field them.

Wed, 2009-10-28 20:00

#15

Sean in Ottawa

Well, in fact I have worked on privacy policies.

some of the things they are supposed to do is:

1) be available by name (interestingly Rabble's is now a broken link)

2) name a privacy officer-- there should be an email address for that person

3) the policy should say what you will do with the informaiton -- not have it open like yours for anything-- e.g.contact you for prizes; send updates no more than x times a month;

4) Should say in the policy that information will not be shared without permission

5) Say that it will not be retained if you decide to stop being a member and lay out a procedure to do that

These are some of the things off the top of my head that it should do. I have not looked at Rabble's and was disturbed to find that I could not.