Your Personal Data Is Political Data
by Rachel Wilkinson
Our phones, our tablets, our computers, the apps we download, the social media platforms we use, and the websites we visit are all inherently personal to us. These technologies have given us the ability to choose what we watch, listen to and read about — the content can be anything and everything we could possibly imagine. But amongst all these online technologies, who is capturing our personal data about our habits and preferences, and who is using it? Who else is curating what pops up in our live feed? To what ends? And could they be leveraging our personal preferences for political aims?
As we increasingly rely on digital technologies, political campaigning has also moved into the digital sphere. In many cases, it is doing so in ways we do not see or realise. It’s not simply a case of seeing an advertisement pop up in your feed and being able to identify whether it is a political message. There are a host of hidden, pervasive and persuasive methods being used to sway our views. How are politicians able to do this so effectively? By leveraging specific data gathered about us. Politicians and political parties around the globe are using tools and techniques from the fields of marketing, statistics and psychology to advance their agendas, to promote their campaigns and to influence voters online. This is the new political modus operandi.
Whilst the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal brought this issue into the public sphere, these two companies are far from the only ones who use personal data for political influence. There are multiple, lesser known but equally influential companies and entities that use personal data for political gain. And the psychometric profiling that was thrust into the spotlight by the Cambridge Analytica scandal is just one of many powerful data-driven techniques these companies are using. In fact, there is still very little known about the vast industry that employs digital campaigning techniques, which are applied to sway citizens’ political views by analysing and leveraging the data they give away. There is also very little regulation or agreed-upon best practices.
Tactical Tech, an international NGO based in Berlin, wanted to look beyond Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, to examine the multiple tools and methods of using individuals’ data to promote political campaigns and attain power. In doing so, Tactical Tech’s research aims to help voters, policy makers and others understand and identify exactly how personal data is transformed into political influence. In the course of their research, Tactical Tech’s Data and Politics team identified and examined many digital and data-driven methods, including robocalls, mobile apps released by candidates, and the use of geolocation information to target voters, to name just a few.
It is hard to legislate and regulate this new industry when the breadth, depth and scale of the techniques being used are not fully known. By researching and understanding the complex industry of actors, methods and distinct election contexts, voters, policy makers, journalists, regulators, political campaigners and technology companies can develop informed opinions and decisions about the relationship between personal data and politics. Tactical Tech worked with partners across the world to gather country-specific information in elections from Mexico to Malaysia to Kenya. This global research found that the political ‘influence industry’ extends far beyond the cases of the United States or the United Kingdom, which tend to dominate the media narrative.
The political ‘influence industry’ extends far beyond the cases of the United States or the United Kingdom
Tactical Tech documented the different technological methods and practices in which political value is extracted from voters’ personal data, identifying over 300 companies around the world that collect personal data for political purposes in ways as yet opaque to the public. With the help of partners, they were then able to create a comprehensive report with a unique, comparative global overview of the ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ of this influence industry. The report has helped civil society actors, policy makers and journalists to identify different forms of online political influence, as well as other researchers and academics, extending the discussion to the general public at a local, national and international level.
Professor Colin Bennett from the University of Victoria, Canada, cited Tactical Tech’s report ‘Personal Data: Political Persuasion. Inside the Influence Industry’, calling it “the most comprehensive comparative analysis on use of personal data and data surveillance to date.” Bennett pointed out the importance of Tactical Tech’s global scope, saying: “It reminded everyone that it is not just the US who are involved in this but there are companies aggressively marketing their products around the whole world. The report was a valuable summary at a critical point.” Of particular note for Bennett were the 14 country studies, which “provided valuable empirical evidence that this is happening on different platforms, across various social media in many countries — importantly, in countries with different cultures, demographics and perhaps countries who have different expectations on privacy. Tactical Tech helped bring valuable material to a local level.” Professor Bennett cited an example of how Tactical Tech’s work has been used to bring this crucial issue to the international policy arena at The International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) in 2019. The aim of the conference was to influence policy makers on the need for regulators to begin to seriously consider regulating political actors.
‘Personal Data: Political Persuasion’ has also informed and enlightened key actors across political institutions. Tactical Tech presented the report and its key findings to the British Cabinet Office and the House of Lords. The House of Commons and House of Lords libraries requested to store a copy of the report. Tactical Tech’s research has also been quoted several times in debates in the House of Lords. The Constitution Society, meanwhile, said: “Much can be learned from reports on past elections; these include Tactical Tech’s Data and Politics project, with examples from a range of countries around the world.”
The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (Eap CSF) is another such organisation. In 2018 they invited Tactical Tech to give a lecture at their DataFest Conference. Iryna Velska, EaP CSF’s expert on developing new digital content, said: “This issue was completely new to our audience, it was eye-opening to understand this is how it works and there was an acknowledgment how serious it was… There was an agreed acceptance that this sort of thing must be happening in our countries. It was the most successful talk we had in terms of impact.” Velska explained: “Our fellows requested more on how digital changes society … It is important to have digitally-savvy people like Tactical Tech who can critically look at digital processes, social media, fake news and use of voters’ data and how that is used by political people to influence. Our activists are now a couple of years on from first hearing about this new trend and are now in the phase of ‘what can we do?’ ”
“Finding a report like Tactical Tech’s…is like finding a goldmine”
Tactical Tech’s role within this emerging field has also been to support and provide expertise to journalists investigating these issues, such as Louise André Williams, who said: “What’s unique…is the combination of precise, high quality information that is really well presented and explained. As a journalist it is really hard to investigate this emerging issue which is so large and diverse. Finding a report like Tactical Tech’s…is like finding a goldmine. I recommend Tactical Tech’s website and reports to other journalist colleagues and film makers.” Williams is currently working on a feature-length documentary for broadcaster ARTE, which will be looking into the topic of voter data and how that is used internationally by political parties and candidates. “Speaking to the team at Tactical Tech gave me an overview on the subject that allowed me to understand tools used worldwide and also to go deep, getting details on specific companies and websites. Tactical Tech put me in contact with relevant people and advised me on specific organisations and contacts in the countries the documentary is focusing on.”
On a local level, Tactical Tech collaborated with leading digital rights groups, lawyers, academics and journalists working in internet politics and data privacy around the world. Together they detailed practices specific to political systems across the world and produced 14 country studies. One example is the Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) in Argentina, who partnered with Tactical Tech for their report on the use of data-driven campaigning in Argentinian elections. As a result of the exploratory analysis on microtargeting in elections in Argentina, ADC discovered that the Electoral Justice system in Argentina did not have adequate resources to control the spending by political parties on online electoral advertising. In response, ADC started its own project, called PubliElectoral, and have developed a system that can track political ads from social media platforms while maintaining individuals’ privacy. They can then compare their data to the Facebook Ads library and the officially recorded campaign spending reports to see if they match up. ADC are now also lobbying Google, Facebook and Twitter to share their Ad Libraries across Latin America. Marianela Milanes from ADC said: “Tactical Tech’s work has been extremely important for our project. The process and results of the investigations have been an inspiration on the subject. In addition, the documents published in the original framework of the Data & Politics research project are the background to our current PubliElectoral work.”
Tactical Tech’s work has highlighted the pervasiveness of digital technologies used for political purposes and influenced the narrative around the topic to account for a diversity of digital influence mechanisms. As a result of the work on a national and international level this evidence-based research is being used to lobby for change. The awareness-raising from the report has brought this influence industry under new scrutiny.
It is subtle and highly tailored messaging targeting our hopes and fears to manipulate us, in order to swing democratic elections.
The next time we scroll through our phones, apps, and social media platforms consuming stories and messages, we should take time to consider: how we are being influenced? Are we being nudged in a certain direction? How much content is being specifically targeted at us? And how are these companies and political parties being regulated and held to account? This type of targeted campaigning using our personal data is not simply a big corporation suggesting we buy a new pair of trainers. It is subtle and highly tailored messaging targeting our hopes and fears to manipulate us, in order to swing democratic elections. As Tactical Tech’s work continues to demonstrate across the globe, all our personal data is now political data.
Rachel Wilkinson is the Development and Partnership Manager at Tactical Tech
