Do ACT political parties use Facebook data on voters?

The ACT branches of the Labor and Liberal parties are being secretive about what data they hold on voters, and how that data is gathered.

Information about voters that political parties can access through social media has been under the microscope since it was revealed that British company Cambridge Analytica trawled the profiles of Facebook users, which was then used by the Trump campaign in order to target voters based on what they had "liked" on the website.

What information do ACT political parties hold about voters?
Photo: Elesa Kurtz

No Australian political parties have worked with Cambridge Analytica, but there are a variety of other software programs available to political parties to record data on voters, including from Facebook.

The South Australian Liberals used a program called i360 in that state's most recent election, and the program has been adopted by the Victorian branch of the party as well. It's been reported that data stored by i360 includes that taken from social media.

Fairfax Media asked the ACT branches of the Labor party, the Liberal party and the Greens what software they already use to track voters, what data that software holds and whether that includes information from Facebook. They were also asked what programs would be used for the next federal and territory elections.

Territory director of the Canberra Liberals Zac Lombardo would not say what software the party uses.

"The Canberra Liberals use a variety of tools to communicate with the electorate. Our use of technology complies with all relevant laws," Mr Lombardo said in a statement.

Secretary of ACT Labor Matt Byrne was also quick to say that the Labor's practices were within Australian law.

"Labor utilises a range of different campaign techniques and tools for campaigning, from doorknocking to phone banking to online," he said.

"Labor works with different groups to get our message out, including social media platforms like Facebook."

Mr Byrne confirmed that Labor uses a program called Campaign Central to track contact with constituents, but that it will soon be moving away from its website platform Nation Builder.

He said the party didn't have information on voters from Facebook.

"The ALP does not gain or acquire information from Facebook of voters and therefore does not store information of that nature," he said.

"All of our work is in complete compliance with relevant laws, including the Commonwealth Electoral Act, which makes it a criminal offence to misuse information on the electoral roll."

Political parties can legally hold a large amount of personal information about voters as they are exempt from privacy laws that limit the collection of such information. Information commonly held includes that which is on the electoral roll, and details of interactions voters have with an MP's office.

Co-conevenor of the ACT Greens Emma Davidson said that software the party used in the 2016 territory election "didn't interact with social media sites like Facebook at all".

"The software used in the 2016 election to store results from the door knock and phone call conversations with voters is a system custom-built by the Australian Greens," she said.

"It only stored the voter information on the electoral roll (ie name, address, phone number) that all political parties can access, and our own notes from conversations we had with the voter (eg 'voter would like more information on our policy about...')."

Ms Davidson said decisions about what software would be used in the next federal and territory elections "will be consistent with the decisions made by the Australian Greens and the values of ACT Greens members".

The Greens said they don't support the exemption to the Privacy Act for political parties.

"The Greens follow the rules, but we think the game is rigged and the rules need to be changed - politicians and political parties should have to comply with the Privacy Act just as all citizens and private entities must do," Ms Davidson said.