Social media 'micro-targeting' of voters on the increase, MPs told

The manipulation of social media data to “micro-target” voters without their consent has significantly increased, the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, has told MPs.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is conducting an inquiry into how political parties used data analytics on social media to influence the 2016 EU referendum.

Denham told the science and technology committee it had been the ICO’s most difficult investigation yet, hampered by the refusal of some campaigns to disclose how they targeted voters.

Ukip is already facing information tribunal proceedings over its refusal to cooperate. Denham told MPs that another unnamed campaign was about to be served with a notice to reveal the methods it used.

Denham said the investigation had found evidence of extensive use of behavioural advertising techniques in politics. She pointed out that this change had happened without public awareness or discussion.

Appearing before the committee as part of its own inquiry into the use of algorithms in decision-making, Denham said: “With big data, cloud computing and analytics, that old-fashioned data collection and analysis that campaigns and political parties have always done has shifted significantly and maybe without taking the voters with them.”

Although the public was getting used to online advertising based on previous purchases of items such as books and DVD, limits may have to drawn in politics, she said. “Maybe we’re OK with that behavioural advertising model, but if that same model is applied to our democratic institutions and our elections, is that OK? Or does there need to be more transparency and choice in that?” she told the committee.

Denham added: “We are looking at data protection issues in micro-targeting. How it is crunched and shared and how it may be manipulated to target people in lookalike environments almost like transactional politics. What’s the impact of transactional politics? That’s a bigger ethical question.”

She signalled that the inquiry could recommend the adoption of a code of conduct on how voters are targeted online. “You don’t want one political party using data in a way that slightly crosses lines and the other not,” Denham said.

“I don’t think there’s a huge smoking gun in our investigation, but I think it is going to reveal that practices have changed really quickly and it’s time to say ‘are we OK with that? What’s allowed and what shouldn’t be allowed?’”

The investigation is expected to be completed this spring.