Nov 10, 2022 08:00:00

How political campaigns use your phone's location to target you

Mobile phone location information service is a very convenient service for living, but in the United States it is said that there is a growing movement to use the collected location information for political activities. Journalist

Jon Keegan explains how and how dangerous it is.

How Political Campaigns Use Your Phone's Location to Target You – The Markup
https://themarkup.org/privacy/2022/11/08/how-political-campaigns-use-your-phones-location-to-target-you

Keegan first describes the data that could be used for political campaigns. Among them, in addition to basic data such as name and address, political party affiliation, voting history in elections, data collected by commercial data brokers such as Experian and Acxiom are included. Data brokers hold information as diverse as demographic data, credit card scores, online browsing and news read, and as a result can reveal voters' net worth, religion, and even the brands they buy. It is said to be possible.

Keegan then explains how data brokers collect location information and use it for political campaigns.

The first is by matching a device to an

IP address based on the voter's home address or other information already on some list. It is said that this method can deliver online advertisements to voters who are considered to be effective in pinpointing the appeal.

The second method is to set a virtual area called a geofence on the map and identify devices that have entered a university or a specific building. This makes it possible to deliver advertisements to the devices of voters who have entered a specific area, and it is also possible to make a 'final appeal' to voters who have entered the polling station.

The third is to purchase accurate location information from the app. Matching apps, weather apps, family monitoring apps, etc. provide location information to third parties when permission is obtained from users. It is also said that there is a way to send location information to a third party using a software development kit embedded in the app.

Keegan points to Kentucky-based advertising company

El Toro as a location-based service that real companies are providing to political campaigns. By cross-referencing a device's mobile advertising ID and IP address, El Toro claims it can serve ads to devices at specific addresses without using cookies . According to the company's website, the technology can target people in specific households with 95% accuracy and is used by more than 4,000 political campaigns.

El Toro's Chief Strategy Officer, Deanna Durrett, said: We recommend that you limit it, ”he said, claiming that the company's service respects the privacy of voters.

Many people think of Meta and Google when they think of companies that collect huge amounts of user data. restricts the ability to use location information for sensitive advertising. Also, Twitter and TikTok have banned political ads since 2019.

Keegan points out that there are privacy concerns about obtaining voter location information and using it for political campaigns. “We need new laws to limit the collection of personal data,” said Adam Schwartz, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation , while Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said, “There is a huge amount of information about individuals. It has become very easy to exploit such a large amount of data.”

For those who want to avoid political ads that use location information, Keegan ``blocks ads and IP addresses using ad blockers,'' ``checks tracking,'' ``checks app location permissions,'' and ``collected data. We recommend measures such as requesting disclosure of personal information.