Data Sciences Inc.
Data Sciences Inc. is a political consultancy based in Canada which uses data analytics for developing messaging and strategy for its clients in Canada and elsewhere.
What does Data Sciences Inc. do?
According to their website, the company provides clients with four key services: “Data + Identity Management”, "Analytics + Predictive Modelling”, “Audience Development + Engagement” and "Research + Message Resonance Testing".
Research services include polling services, gathering information on target markets, stakeholder geographic mapping, and market research.
The research is complemented with what the company calls “Audience Development + Digital Engagement” along with "Data + Identity Management", which appears to include, for example, the generation of profiles on people by combining publicly available datasets with all the data held on people by its clients. This might include, for example, customers' purchases or social media followers.
Information collected is then consolidated with the goal of making predictions about voters as part of the "Analytics + Predictive Modelling" service.
Data collection
The company's privacy policy provides information on the personal information of visitors to the website. Accordingly, they may collect email addresses, information about page visits and log IP addresses.
The privacy policy does not give any details about how they access or further process personal data from third parties, or how they may use personal data on behalf of their clients.
Profiling and Targeting
Data Sciences Inc. explicitly markets the generation of profiles as a service, which are used to further their clients' goals. "You can learn a lot by reconciling anonymous web-event data (trackers, pixels, cookies) with customer information from your CRM or transactional platform", Data Sciences explains, "Like how to generate psychographic profiles and use them to build more efficient audience segments."
The data collected by Data Sciences Inc. is reportedly used to help political parties target potential voters. Messages can, according to the Canadian publication La Presse, be tested in real time on platforms, such as Facebook, to better target audiences.
