Major parties harvesting personal data under guise of helping voters

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The major parties are harvesting voters’ personal details in the guise of helping people apply for postal ballots at the very start of a hotly contested election campaign.

Labor and the Liberal Party both have websites that claim to enable people to apply for postal ballots, but before redirecting users to the Australian Electoral Commission website make them fill in personal details, including their full name, phone number, address and email.

The major parties both have websites set up to harvest personal data from voters under the guise of helping apply for postal votes.

The AEC is the only place voters can register for any form of voting. The party websites offer no advantage above what the AEC already provides.

Political parties are exempt from the Privacy Act and do not need to advise voters of the information they hold, or to remove it. The parties have fought to maintain their exemption from the act, which was first put in place more than two decades ago, and were the target of a major hack that exposed voters’ details before the 2019 election.

The Labor Party and Coalition collect the details of voters to be able to distribute advertising material before an election.

An email sent to voters by the Coalition’s Mackellar candidate James Brown, which has been shared with this masthead, emphasises the importance of the federal election and urges a vote for the opposition. It then states that “if you need a postal vote application, you can apply via www.postal.vote”.

Liberal candidate for Parramatta Katie Mullins has posted a video on social media encouraging people seeking to cast a postal ballot to visit the party’s data harvesting website.

Labor’s HowToVote website – www.howtovote.org.au/postal – is similar but with that party’s branding. It states, “Your vote matters. Make it count.”

Both websites encourage visitors to click “apply” and then complete their personal details.

People are then advised that by clicking to submit their details, they will be redirected to the AEC website.

Former Labor campaign strategist Megan Lane said the data harvesting tactics are commonly used by political parties, who use the information to target their campaigns at swinging voters in key marginal electorates.

But, she added, voters do not need to provide their personal information to political parties.

“There is no need to register your details with any particular political party in order to exercise your right to vote early,” Lane said.

Labor and the Coalition operated the same websites during the 2022 election campaign.

The Australian Electoral Commission said it was lawful for parties to issue postal vote applications but expressed concern about voters’ privacy and control of their data.

“Our advice to all voters is that the simplest way to apply for a postal vote is to apply directly on the AEC’s website,” it said in a statement.

“Not only is this method faster than going through a political party, it also protects the privacy of voters’ details. The AEC is bound by Australian privacy laws.”

A Liberal Party spokesperson said political campaigns ran the websites to ensure voters are informed about the election. “It has been the longstanding practice of both major parties to facilitate postal vote applications over many elections,” the spokesperson said. The Labor Party issued a similar statement and said the practice was legal.

To apply for a postal ballot, update your details, or register to vote, visit www.aec.gov.au.

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