Facebook offered data tool to ALP and LNP
Facebook reportedly approached both the Labor and Liberal parties with an opportunity to use a powerful data matching tool for more targeted advertising for swing voters, but the Liberal party turned the company down due to data sovereignty concerns.
Facebook offered the advanced matching tool in its Custom Audience to the two major parties as a way to target specific people including undecided voters in key marginal seats, Fairfax Media reported.
The tool allows parties to match data collected about voters — including information collected from the electoral roll — against information listed by users on their Facebook profiles.
While the report suggests that Labor has used the tool, Liberal strategists rejected it due in large part to concerns that this would result in personal information being sent overseas, which may be in violation of both the Privacy and Electoral Acts.
Labor has meanwhile declined to comment on the specifics of its use of the tool, but has insisted that all its campaign work is in compliance with the relevant laws.
But revelations of Facebook's offer have sinister overtones in light of the recent scandal involving Cambridge Analytica collecting information on Facebook users without their consent and using it to influence the US election and the Brexit referendum in the UK.
Meanwhile, Facebook has taken out multiple ads in both US and British newspapers to apologise for its role in the scandal.
In a message signed by Mark Zuckerberg, the ads admit to a breach of trust, apologise for Facebook's lack of action at the time and assert that the company is taking steps to ensure it does not happen again. The company admitted that it does not deserve to hold private information on its users if it can not protect it.
Facebook is also under fire from a different direction, with Australian Cyber Security Centre head Alastair MacGibbon suggesting that Facebook and other tech companies are being hypocritical by collecting and selling personal data on users, but refusing to co-operate with governments by sharing this information when asked for assistance in criminal investigations.
In an interview with Sky News, MacGibbon said these companies will often refuse to help investigators or claim that the government is overreaching when asked to share private information with investigators.
He said technology companies must take a more mature approach to their treatment of personal data to comply with community expectations.
Finally, the technology industry is bracing for the prospect of the controversy resulting in more regulation involving the handling of personal data, particularly in the US where such regulation is historically lacking.
A New York Times report quotes experts as stating that technology companies such as Facebook and Google have grown complacent over privacy due in part to the short lifespan of various past privacy scandals.
But with the spotlight on the Cambridge Analytica story, US Congress could act to tighten controls over the collection and use of private information.
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