Gold Coast Council to mine Facebook data of Commonwealth Games visitors
THE Gold Coast City Council has been slammed over it’s plans to mine the Facebook data of Wi-Fi users during the Commonwealth Games.
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CIVIL libertarians have savaged the Gold Coast City Council over its plans to mine the Facebook data of Commonwealth Games visitors, saying users must be warned.
The council is offering free, high-speed wi-fi to Games’ visitors but there’s a catch.
Users will only get access to the high-speed service if they log on with their Facebook accounts, allowing the council to capture and mine their data to shape future tourism marketing campaigns. The data will also be shared with the tourism sector.
Games visitors who don’t want to log on via Facebook can still get free wi-fi, but they’ll get a slower service with lower data limits.
The plan has outraged the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, which says privacy laws prohibit data collection unless it’s necessary for council purposes.
“No doubt, the council says that one of its purposes is to promote tourism on the Gold Coast,” QCCL president Michael Cope said on Wednesday.
“However, depending on the Facebook privacy settings of those using the wi-fi service, the council will collect a considerable amount of information which is absolutely unrelated to and unnecessary for the promotion of tourism.” Mr Cope said that could include how many friends users have, who those friends are, what they’ve liked on Facebook and their photos.
“If the council thinks that this information is useful, perhaps it might actually pay people for it and not sneakily obtain vast amounts of totally irrelevant data from people who have no idea what they are giving up,” he said. The council has defended its plan, saying personal data won’t be shared with other agencies.
“We will be able to monitor the people, where they come from, that is, the percentage of tourists coming from China, Japan, Southeast Asia and locals, and the timing of it as well,” Mayor Tom Tate has told ABC radio. Mr Tate launched the high-speed wi-fi in the Broadbeach Mall on Tuesday, but an accompanying media statement made no mention of plans to mine Facebook data. AAP has sought further comment from the mayor, including what the council will do to warn users, which contractor will mine the data, and why the data is needed given council already has access to domestic and international visitation figures.
News of the council’s plan comes amid efforts by Australia’s privacy watchdog to determine if Facebook shared Australians’ personal information with controversial researchers Cambridge Analytica.
The company has been accused of harvesting data from 50 million Facebook users to influence foreign elections.
The company has suspended its chief executive Alexander Nix after he boasted of various unsavoury services and of the firm playing a major role in securing US President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory.
Cambridge has denied wrongdoing and Mr Trump’s campaign has said it didn’t use Cambridge’s data.
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