“We have concluded that there are risks in relation to
the processing of personal data by many political parties. Particular concerns
include: the purchasing of marketing lists and lifestyle information from data
brokers without sufficient due diligence, a lack of fair processing, and use of
third party data analytics companies with insufficient checks around consent….We
have looked closely at the role of those who buy and sell personal data-sets in
the UK. Our existing investigation of the privacy issues raised by their work
has been expanded to include their activities in political processes….The
investigation has identified a total of 172 organisations of interest that
required engagement, of which around 30 organisations have formed the main
focus of our enquiries, including political parties, data analytics companies
and major social media platforms…..Similarly, we have identified a total of 285
individuals relating to our investigation.” [UK
Information Commissioner’s Office, Investigation
into the use of data analytics in political campaigns: Investigation update,
July 2018]
Slowly but
surely the Russian connections between the UK Brexit referendum campaign and
the US presidential campaign are beginning to emerge.
A
source familiar with the FBI investigation revealed that the commissioner and
her deputy spent last week with law enforcement agencies in the US including
the FBI. And Denham’s deputy, James Dipple-Johnstone, confirmed to the Observer that
“some of the systems linked to the investigation were accessed from IP
addresses that resolve to Russia and other areas of the CIS [Commonwealth of
Independent States]”.
It was also reported that Senator Mark Warner,
vice chair of US Senate Intel Committee and Damian Collins MP, chair of the
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee inquiry into “fake news”,
met in Washington on or about 16 July 2018 to discuss Russian interference in both British and American democratic processes during
an Atlantic Council meeting.
UK Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO), media
release, 10 July 2018:
Information
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has today published a detailed update of her
office’s investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns.
In
March 2017, the ICO began looking into whether personal data had been misused
by campaigns on both sides of the referendum on membership of the EU.
In
May it launched an investigation that included political parties, data
analytics companies and major social media platforms.
Today’s progress report gives details of some of the
organisations and individuals under investigation, as well as enforcement
actions so far.
This
includes the ICO’s intention to fine Facebook a maximum £500,000 for two
breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Facebook,
with Cambridge Analytica, has been the focus of the investigation since
February when evidence emerged that an app had been used to harvest the data of
50 million Facebook users across the world. This is now estimated at 87
million.
The
ICO’s investigation concluded that Facebook contravened the law by failing to
safeguard people’s information. It also found that the company failed to be
transparent about how people’s data was harvested by others.
Facebook
has a chance to respond to the Commissioner’s Notice of Intent, after which a
final decision will be made.
Other
regulatory action set out in the report comprises:
warning letters to 11 political
parties and notices compelling them to agree to audits of their data protection
practices;
an Enforcement Notice for SCL
Elections Ltd to compel it to deal properly with a subject access request from
Professor David Carroll;
a criminal prosecution for SCL
Elections Ltd for failing to properly deal with the ICO’s Enforcement Notice;
an Enforcement Notice for Aggregate IQ
to stop processing retained data belonging to UK citizens;
a Notice of Intent to take regulatory
action against data broker Emma’s Diary (Lifecycle Marketing (Mother and Baby)
Ltd); and
audits of the main credit reference
companies and Cambridge University Psychometric Centre.
Information
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said:
“We
are at a crossroads. Trust and confidence in the integrity of our democratic
processes risk being disrupted because the average voter has little idea of
what is going on behind the scenes.
“New
technologies that use data analytics to micro-target people give campaign
groups the ability to connect with individual voters. But this cannot be at the
expense of transparency, fairness and compliance with the law.
She
added:
“Fines
and prosecutions punish the bad actors, but my real goal is to effect change
and restore trust and confidence in our democratic system.”
Among
the ten recommendations is a call for the Government to introduce a statutory
Code of Practice for the use of personal data in political campaigns.
Ms
Denham has also called for an ethical pause to allow Government, Parliament,
regulators, political parties, online platforms and the public to reflect on
their responsibilities in the era of big data before there is a greater
expansion in the use of new technologies.
She
said:
“People
cannot have control over their own data if they don’t know or understand how it
is being used. That’s why greater and genuine transparency about the use of
data analytics is vital.”
In
addition, the ICO commissioned research from the Centre for the Analysis of
Social Media at the independent thinktank DEMOS. Its report, also published
today, examines current and emerging trends in how data is used in political
campaigns, how use of technology is changing and how it may evolve in the next
two to five years.
The
investigation, one of the largest of its kind by a Data Protection Authority,
remains ongoing. The 40-strong investigation team is pursuing active lines of
enquiry and reviewing a considerable amount of material retrieved from servers
and equipment.
The
interim progress report has been produced to inform the work of the DCMS’s
Select Committee into Fake News.
The
next phase of the ICO’s work is expected to be concluded by the end of October
2018.
BRISTOL,
England — On Aug. 19, 2016, Arron Banks, a wealthy British businessman,
sat down at the palatial residence of the Russian ambassador to London for
a lunch of wild halibut and Belevskaya pastila apple sweets
accompanied by Russian white wine.
Banks
had just scored a huge win. From relative obscurity, he had become the largest
political donor in British history by pouring millions into Brexit, the
campaign to disentangle the United Kingdom from the European Union that had
earned a jaw-dropping victory at the polls two months earlier.
Now
he had something else that bolstered his standing as he sat down with his new Russian
friend, Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko: his team’s deepening ties to Donald
Trump’s insurgent presidential bid in the United States. A major Brexit
supporter, Stephen K. Bannon, had just been installed as chief executive of
Trump’s campaign. And Banks and his fellow Brexiteers had been invited to
attend a fundraiser with Trump in Mississippi.
Less
than a week after the meeting with the Russian envoy, Banks and firebrand
Brexit politician Nigel Farage — by then a cult hero among some
anti-establishment Trump supporters — were huddling privately with the
Republican nominee in Jackson, Miss., where Farage wowed a foot-stomping crowd
at a Trump rally.
Banks’s
journey from a lavish meal with a Russian diplomat in London to the raucous
heart of Trump country was part of an unusual intercontinental charm offensive
by the wealthy British donor and his associates, a hard-partying lot who dubbed
themselves the “Bad Boys of Brexit.” Their efforts to simultaneously cultivate
ties to Russian officials and Trump’s campaign have captured the interest of
investigators in the United Kingdom and the United States, including special
counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Yakovenko
is already on the radar of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating
Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, after he was named in
the indictment of ex-Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos….
Banks,
along with close friend and former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, was among the very
first overseas political figures to meet Trump after his surprise victory in
November 2016.
It
also emerged over the weekend that Banks passed contact information for Trump’s
transition team to the Russians.
