Reform’s energy bills competition could breach data protection laws

Reform bigot Nigel Farage is offering to pay your energy bills, but the cost isn’t exactly free. It will probably cost you your private data.

Reform UK has launched a competition promising to cover the energy costs for winners and their neighbours for a year. Apparently you’ll get a personal visit from Farage himself. (Urgh.)

The competition was launched to help advertise Reform’s new policy on how to cut energy bills — but to enter, entrants must disclose their past and future voting intentions.

Digital rights experts warn this violates UK data protection law. Mariano Delli Santi from the Open Rights Group, a non-profit digital rights organisation, said:

Reform are asking the public to hand over sensitive data about their voting habits without being transparent about how it will be used. This is a clear breach of transparency obligations under UK data protection law. Nothing in their privacy policy suggests they are not acting unlawfully in many other ways.

Delli Santi argued voters shouldn’t feel pressured to “trade their privacy for the chance of material benefit” and has called for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to investigate the competition.

Aside from the potential breach of data protection law, offering financial incentives in exchange for people’s political views risks turning democratic participation into a data-harvesting exercise.

Privacy barrister, Eleanor Duhs, noted that political opinions have extra protection under UK GDPR law. And let’s be honest, why the fuck does a raffle require all of your personal data on voting habits? Because it’s definitely for a nefarious reason.

Personally, I can imagine nothing worse than having my gas paid for by a racist political party which has problems respecting women and telling the truth. But each to their own, I guess.

At a time when a lot of people are falling into devastating poverty, I can see the appeal to those on the edge. It almost feels like Reform is taking advantage of people’s circumstances. Again.

Data harvesting and potential abuse

The ‘data minimisation’ principle requires organisations to only collect what is absolutely necessary. Critics of Reform argue that knowing who you vote for is irrelevant to a prize draw. It’s even more worrying when we have companies such as Palantir courting the far-right like flies on shit. Yet, Reform claims the competition is legal and complies with electoral laws.

However, experts warn that harvesting voter intentions allows parties to create invasive voter profiles. This sensitive data can be abused through micro-targeting — where parties use psychological triggers in digital ads to manipulate emotions or reinforce biases.

Algorithms use this data to sort people into tiny, homogenous groups and will send out tailored messages. These can be entirely different from what they show someone else. Think Cambridge Analytica.

Even raffle losers could be tracked through shadow profiling in which Reform can use this data to build maps of persuadable households. By building data maps, they can then target specific streets based on the sensitive data shared with them.

There are also concerns regarding data brokerage. Political parties could share data with third-party consultants who use ‘big data’ to predict the public’s reaction to news. This allows for discriminatory campaigning where specific groups are targeted to discourage them from voting, which sounds exactly like something Reform would do.

A simple raffle or surveillance?

Farage used the launch to promote his plan to scrap green levies and VAT. He promised if Reform UK wins, he’ll personally visit the winners to pay their bills. To be honest, that sounds like more of a threat than anything else. (Or a clever way to lure him in.)

Farage also vowed to break existing contracts with green energy producers. Other than to suck up the arses of big oil and gas, I have no idea why Farage would even throw this out there.

The ICO confirmed all parties must follow data protection laws and urged concerned individuals to complain to either the party or the ICO directly.

This move turns serious policy and people’s desperation into a “downmarket reality gameshow”, according to some commentators. It raises serious questions about how much personal freedom we are willing to sell for a lower bill.

Will you hand over your private democratic data for a chance of free energy? I definitely fucking won’t be.

Featured image via ShutterStock