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The use of data analytics by political parties has piqued the interest of the Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office, a UK public body that protects data rights. On Wednesday it into the targeting of voters through social media by political parties, warning that any messages sent to people based on identifying data could be breaking the law.
鈥淕iven the big data revolution, it is understandable that political campaigns are exploring the potential of advanced data analysis tools to help win votes,鈥 Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner, writes on the ICO鈥檚 blog. However, 鈥渢he public have the right to expect鈥 that this takes place in accordance with existing data protection laws, she adds.
Political parties are able to use Facebook to target voters with different messages, tailoring the advert to recipients based on their demographic. In the 2015 UK general election, the Conservative party spent 拢1.2 million on Facebook campaigns and the Labour party 拢16,000. It is expected that Labour will vastly increase that spend for the general election on 8 June.
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Political parties and third-party companies are allowed to collect data from sites like Facebook and Twitter that lets them tailor these ads to broadly target different demographics. However, if those ads target identifiable individuals, it runs afoul of the law.
The ICO鈥檚 investigation represents a broadening of an ongoing inquiry. The ICO has been looking into the use of data analytics during last year鈥檚 EU referendum campaign in the UK, with the new investigation widening this remit to include both the 2015 and upcoming elections. As part of the original investigation, it has contacted Cambridge Analytica, a company associated with Donald Trump鈥檚 presidential campaign and the Leave.EU campaign.
Social media has had a large impact on the transparency of political campaigns, says at the Oxford Internet Institute in the UK. “It has really changed political advertising from something that used to be in the open, to something where the adverts feel as if they are passing by unnoticed.” It is much easier to check if a single message on the side of a bus is factually correct than a thousand individually tailored political ads that only show up in a few people鈥檚 feeds, he says.
The ICO hasn鈥檛 yet said when the investigation is planned to conclude. But if it finds evidence of wrongdoing, fines could reach 拢500,000.
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