A VOTER’S GUIDE

7 Tips To Detox Your Data

 Based on your profile, a campaign might send you
HOW DO POLITICAL personalised political messages via:

CAMPAIGNS USE a flyer delivered to your house

MY DATA TO an exclusive Snapchat filter
PERSUADE ME? a prompt to download an official campaign app
an advertisement on YouTube or your Smart TV
an email, text message, or phone call
You probably see political advertisements everywhere: from a version of a candidate’s website
the websites you visit, to your social media feed, to leaflets on
your doorstep. It seems everyone is talking about the issues You might be thinking: ‘Aren’t more specific, relevant adverts
that are most important to you! And it’s not by chance. better for me?’ Keep in mind that today’s digital campaigning
methods might use information about your habits and interests
The more political campaigns know about you, the better that you would prefer to keep private. This might include details
they can influence you – whether that means recruiting you that don’t even seem political, like the websites you browse or
as a volunteer, encouraging you to donate, swaying your vote, what you buy in shops.
or getting you out to the polling station on election day.
You have the right to know how your information is being used,
Luckily for them, information about who you are and how to especially if it is being used to persuade or influence you before
target you is easy to find. Political advertisements are an election. Tactical Tech has researched some of the most
increasingly shaped by the information you leave behind in popular data-driven campaign techniques to reach, profile, and
your life, both online and offline. Political campaigns gather persuade voters in elections around the world.
this data about you from lots of different places and use it to
create a profile of you. This profile helps them figure out This Data Detox Voter’s Guide describes a few of the most
which candidates or issues you would find most appealing, popular methods candidates are employing to win your
in order to target you with messages tailored to you. support, so you can cast your vote with the knowledge of how
and when these persuasion techniques are being used on you.
 1.
WHERE DO
CAMPAIGNS GET Data Brokers and Political Consultants: Political campaigns can

INFORMATION also get data about you by purchasing it from data brokers. These
are large companies that often possess incredibly in-depth data
ABOUT ME? about millions of people around the world. Politicians can use this
detailed data to find out more about their supporters or potential
Politicians, political parties, and political campaigns are voters. Along with data brokers, political consultants also offer
interested in your spending habits, your lifestyle, your online campaigns their own tailored data sets on voters.
activity, and much more. How do they get access to this data?
A number of ways: it can be provided by major data brokers,
big tech companies, voter databases, and more. Other Sources: Political campaigns can also get data about voters
from lots of other sources including:

Big Tech Companies: Companies like Google and Facebook • official voter registration records
are gateways to your data for political parties. Google and • supporter databases
Facebook dominate the digital advertising industry because • polls and surveys done through canvassing and phone-banking
they have so much data about their billions of users. This rich • government records of turnout and winning candidates from
data means that customers who want to advertise on Google or past elections in your area
Facebook – including politicians and political parties – can buy
adverts that are targeted to their preferred audiences. Political Even things like where you shop, what you buy, what you post
parties and candidates spend a lot of their budgets on these online, your credit score, and your education give political parties
‘micro-targeted’ ads. more information that can be used to understand and reach you.

TIP #1: Switch Up Your Routines

If your consumer behaviour is so valuable to political campaigns,
why not mix it up? You could give your loyalty card a break,
occasionally pay with cash in brick-and-mortar stores, or think
twice before signing up for regular newsletters by giving up your
contact details.

If you’d like to explore how consumer data is used to fuel

campaigns, check out:
https://ourdataourselves.tacticaltech.org/posts/consumer-data
 2.
After analysing what people are saying on Twitter about
WHAT DOES anything from Brexit to marijuana legislation, a campaign
MY SOCIAL MEDIA might, for example, create three messages: one to target those
SAY ABOUT ME? who are tired of talking about it, and one each for those who
have a strong opinion one way or the other.

Another way that campaigns can collect data on your online

Did you Tweet about a climate change demonstration? Do you engagement is by testing different variations of an advert or
use exclamation marks in your Facebook posts to show your email. This is called A/B testing. The campaigners can then
disbelief? These may sound like harmless details, but hints like analyse what content, colours, and headlines lead you to donate,
these can reveal a lot about you to political parties who want to like, or share on your social media.
reach you. By analysing your posts on social media, there are
companies that can decide what makes you tick and click –
whether you like angry or sad messages, blue or orange colours, Companies or organisations are not always clear about whether
or how you feel about an issue. they monitor social media behaviour, which makes it difficult to
know whether you are being ‘listened’ to. You should, however,
assume that by talking in a public online space such as Twitter,
This method of figuring out what you’re interested in based on or if you have a public Facebook account or contribute to public
what you’re saying on social media (and how you’re saying it) is Facebook groups, your posts, clicks, and responses can be used
called digital listening. ‘Listening’ to people’s social media can to understand what political issues you want to talk about or
help candidates know what the public thinks about them. It can how you feel about an issue.
also assist campaigns in identifying the issues that voters care
about, and can even pinpoint political influencers by learning
who’s shaping the political narrative.
TIP #2: Customise Your Social Media Preferences
There are a few steps you can take on social media platforms to
try to reduce how much your data can be used to tailor the
political adverts you receive.

Check your profile options and settings for ways to change the
ad and marketing preferences and/or delete your activity
history across different platforms to make them less linked to
your online activities.

Read: https://datadetoxkit.org/en/privacy/profile
to learn more about how to do this.
 3.
A political party can follow your click on their Facebook advert
DID I AGREE TO linking to their website, for example, and then see what parts
SHARE MY DATA? of their website you visit, such as their education policy or
donations page. Using this information, they can then target
you with an advert based on those subjects, and this same
advert will appear on other unrelated websites you browse.
Political parties have to ask your permission before collecting
your personal data. But when you click 'I accept' on a website,
Whilst the organisations who run the websites must request
app, or newsletter, it might not be clear exactly what personal
your consent to do this, you most likely click ‘accept all cookies’
data you're agreeing to give away. The small print in privacy
because this is often the only way to quickly access the
policies or disclaimers that are unclear or hidden from sight
information on the site. By doing so, you may lose control over
can make it difficult to know exactly what data is being
how your personal data is used.
collected and how it is being used.

You might have seen the same advert follow you around TIP #3: Lock Down Your Mobile and Desktop Browsers
everywhere you go on the internet. It’s no coincidence! To get ahead of some of those online trackers used by
Companies use a combination of cookies and tracking pixels political parties:
(along with other tools) to track users as they browse the
Use Private/Incognito Browsing modes when possible
internet or access services on a mobile phone. These tools
also allow advertisers to pursue you with a targeted ad. Install browser extensions like Privacy Badger:
https://www.eff.org/privacybadger and uBlock Origin:
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#ublock-origin to keep
trackers in check. (As these are browser extensions, you will
still see targeted adverts in apps you use.)
Enable “Do Not Track” in your browser settings (websites don’t
have to comply with this, but it sends a signal that you’re not
OK with being tracked)

Use the Data Detox Kit’s other resources to take control

of ad tracking
 4.
HOW ARE TIP #4: Stay Informed
POLITICAL ADS To gain more insight into the political ad landscape you
can check out:
TARGETED AT ME?
Facebook Ad Library:
http://www.facebook.com/ads/library/
Social media platforms have access to all kinds of potentially
Google Transparency Report:
useful data about voters, and this makes them great places for http://www.transparencyreport.google.com/political-ads/overview
political campaigns to advertise. Political campaigns can use
Facebook (which owns Instagram), Google (which owns YouTube Snap Political Ads Library:
and Google Search), and Snapchat to target you with specific ads http://www.snap.com/en-US/political-ads/
based on categories like your age, location, and gender. But they You can use these resources to see how much money campaigns spent on
can also use very specific information such as what kind of which ads, in what locations, as well as some basic demographic targeting
content you engage with on their platforms, including what you information. These transparency tools, however, are still not available in
‘Like’ or comment on.* all countries where political ads are supported .

You can also explore the Ad.Watch: https://ad.watch project which

In addition, social media platforms offer special services provides a different take on Facebook’s Ad Library, or consider installing
specifically for political campaigns. You might not know that the Who Targets Me: https://whotargets.me/en extension to help
Facebook lets political campaigns upload their voter lists to crowdsource political ads on Facebook.
Facebook so they can send personalised adverts just to the
people on those lists. On top of that, Facebook even enables
political advertisers to target people with similar profiles to the
voters on their lists.

Facebook has also helped political campaigns optimise and

target their ads based on users’ psychological traits. The
Cambridge Analytica case showed how a data firm used large
amounts of Facebook data to categorise voters into profiles
based on how ‘open, conscientious, extroverted, agreeable, or
neurotic’ they were thought to be. Whilst most people have heard
of Cambridge Analytica, this technique, and others like it, are
used by many other companies to profile you as a consumer *Note: As of November 2019, many companies, including Facebook, Twitter and
or voter. Google, are revising (or reportedly considering revising) their policies toward
political advertisements on their platforms.
 5.
HOW DO CAMPAIGNS Geotargeting can take many forms, but the three most
KNOW WHERE I STAND common types are:
(LITERALLY)?
• Creating a virtual ‘geofence’ around a specific point in the
real world (such as a specific building or event) which
Your location says a lot about you. Just knowing which city and triggers political messages to appear when individuals
neighbourhood you live in can suggest which issues matter to you pass through it
most. So, too, can information about where you go.
• Identifying approximate locations of voters based on their
Your presence at a particular pub on a Friday night or a place of IP addresses
worship, for instance, may convey information about your attitude
toward certain issues, which is valuable for campaigns pitching • Using demographic information, such as postal codes,
political platforms. By knowing where you stand, they can choose to target political messages at voters
to target you with specific messages — or ignore you outright.
It’s not just companies that specialise in political campaign
Location data isn’t just information about where you are on a map. services that do this type of location-based targeting. Other
It also paints a picture of what you like to do and what you’re companies that collect or have access to location information
interested in. Some form of location data is being used to target have been known to provide that data to political parties.
people in virtually every election campaign around the world. For example, The Weather Channel App provided location
information for political ads, while Snapchat is a popular
Nearly all campaigns use big tech platforms to geotarget platform for political parties to target voters with ads based
advertisements (based on where you are and where you go), on their location.
whether it’s in a particular city, district, neighbourhood,
or even an individual household. TIP #5: Limit Who Knows Where You Are
Are you thinking about attending a political rally or
demonstration, or simply going to your polling station?
Take some measures against location-based targeting by
keeping your location data in check.

Clear your location footprints:

https://datadetoxkit.org/en/privacy/essentials#step-2
from your mobile devices.
 6.
MAKE YOUR
VOICE HEARD

If you want to do more to take control of how your personal

data is used in elections, you can help by spreading the word.

TIP #6: Speak Up

Talk or write to representatives and political parties in your
area and ask them how they are using your data in their
political campaign.

If you’re concerned about a particular practice, like

location-based profiling for example, write or call electoral
regulators to let them know how you feel.

7.
TAKE A STAND
The complex and unclear ways these campaign technologies
are used can make you feel increasingly discouraged and
disengaged from one of the most important processes in a
democracy – the act of voting. When you understand how your
data is being used to persuade you in an election, you can
make more informed political choices. If you want to to
empower others to do the same, spread the word.

TIP #7: Tell Your Community

Talk to your friends and family about how your (and their)
information is being used during campaign season and how it
may change how they are being targeted. The more people know
and the more buzz is created around the topic, the more likely it
is to be addressed, so please share this guide with others!