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31 October 2019 / Malcolm Dowden , Moga Moodley
Issue: 7862 / Categories: Opinion , Technology , Media , Data protection
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Protecting the election ‘Persuadables’

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With a general election approaching, taking back control of your browser data is essential, say Moga Moodley & Malcolm Dowden

With a 12 December UK general election now in the diary there is a pressing need to consider the risk of electoral influence or manipulation through the harvesting of personal data, highlighted by the 2016 Facebook/Cambridge Analytica (CA) scandal. Political will to avoid such risks might be strengthened by legal exposure stemming from a recent Court of Appeal decision encouraging class actions for breaches of personal data protection which may stem from large-scale profiling activities ((Lloyd v Google LLC [2019] EWCA Civ 1599, [2019] All ER (D) 09 (Oct).

Browser data

Web browsers such as Safari, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer collect and analyse browser data to determine users’: location; websites visited; how much time is spent on those websites; and what searches are made, and how frequently.

Browser data may be accumulated and analysed to build user profiles, identifying behaviour patterns and preferences along with detailed maps of individuals’ social networks. CA whistleblowers revealed that

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