Sneaky politicians are already data harvesting in preparation for the coming election

It’s an election year in Great Britain, and you know what that means – shenanigans. In 2019, “dirty tricks” perpetrated by the Tory Party included a fake punch, several fake fact-checking websites, and pretty much everything Boris Johnson said (or did (or secretly thought)).

The 2024 general election might not happen until later this year, and yet the dodgy tactics are already on display. The latest trick was highlighted with a community note on the website we’re choosing to refer to as Twitter:

Calculate your savings from our tax cut: https://t.co/QqkSiPsnQj

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) January 6, 2024

“Classic data-grabbing”

IT law professor Paul Bernal described the Tory ploy as follows:

See the community note: this is classic data-grabbing and @ICOnews should be stopping it. https://t.co/aGHXoyBOkj

— Prof Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) January 7, 2024

Other people had similar things to say:

Don’t use this tax calculator.
It’s some sort of Tory data gathering exercise. https://t.co/UL2Spke3Gy

— Ferret (@Ferretgrove) January 7, 2024

There should be a law against political parties tricking the electorate into signing up to their mailing list imho. Grubby, dishonest behaviour. https://t.co/CxAhq11QgC

— Michael (@Michael_Dunn4) January 7, 2024

Responses to Bernal’s tweet highlighted a sad truth – namely that the Labour Party is doing something similarly slimey:

They do, which is why I called it ‘classic data grabbing’. It’s still wrong and wholly inappropriate.

— Prof Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) January 7, 2024

'Labour has released a “Tory tax calculator”, an online tool that will show you the impacts of the Tory tax regime on your salary. You also have to put in your contact details; everything is data' @LabourList https://t.co/g4T2RFQ7La

— Sebastian Kraemer 💙 #EndFossil (@sebkraemer) January 2, 2024

The tactic is one which seems to have been deployed for some time, and by both parties:

This isn’t a tax calculator. Labour want your data. If you need assistance with your Council Tax please contact your local authority. https://t.co/XWVR7mtPAQ

— William Hall (@William__Hall) January 25, 2021

Rock-bottom trust in an election year

In December 2023, polling company Ipsos reported:

Trust in politicians reaches its lowest score in 40 years

Ouch. It elaborated further, noting:

Just nine per cent of the British public say they trust politicians to tell the truth, down from twelve per cent in 2022. This makes them the least trusted profession in Britain*. Although trust in politicians is usually low, this years’ score is the lowest for politicians since the first wave of the survey in 1983; aside from 2022 the previous low was a score of 13%, which occurred in 2009 following the expenses scandal.

Could hoodwinking working people be making the problem worse? It certainly can’t be helping.

If you yourself number among the 9% who still trust British politicians, I’ve got a data scam I think you’d be interested in signing up to.

* To give you the full picture, we should note that journalists also number in the top 5 least-trusted professions. Having observed the mainstream British press for several years, we’re fully on board with this assessment.

Featured image via Twitter