Privacy Group Highlights Voter Tracking Concerns

Visitors to the US presidential candidates' web sites are being tagged by technology used to identify unique users and track their online behavior, causing concern in a report issued by watchdog organisation CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington).

According to Evidon, a company which helps businesses and consumers monitor and control third-party tracking software, there are 76 tracking programs on barackobama.com, compared with 40 on mittromney.com. Voters landing on either site are then 'followed' online with targeted political ads, while the political links they share with their social networks can also be tracked.

In a recent article in the NY Times, it was suggested that the use of trackers could result in information about millions of people's political beliefs being passed on to companies, or later used for purposes such as excluding someone from a job offer based on their past political affiliations.

CREW report that 16 of the political trackers have been criticized as warranting either 'concern' or 'caution' by PrivacyScore, an online tool for assessing the privacy practices and policies of web sites and companies. CREW also found that 39 of the trackers identified do not disclose any data retention policy, meaning web users have no way of knowing how long their information will be kept.

Executive Director Melanie Sloan comments: 'CREW's latest report proves Washington political operatives are keeping an extraordinarily close eye on prospective voters' online habits. While these groups may claim such trackers allow them to present web users with more relevant information, voters should be concerned about both the lack of transparency and invasion of privacy.'

Officials from both political campaigns claim that all data collected is anonymous.

Web sites: www.citizensforethics.org and www.evidon.com .