Shock Report: Tories Planned to Make Millions By Selling Conservative Members Data

The Guardian reported Thursday that senior party officials worked on commercial venture that would allow brands to sell products to supporters.

At the center of the alleged scheme: One Christen Ager-Hanssen.

Our colleagues at CoinGeek summarize the findings from The Guardian:

They reveal that Ager-Hanssen was proposing to develop a mobile application for the party called ‘True Blue.’ The app purported to give the party ‘direct access to its members in order to “boost donations” through digital payments, design “bespoke messaging” based on demographics, and “maximise” voter turnout by directing members to polling stations and issuing a voter identity card.’

However, the real purpose of the app appears to have been to enable the Party to commercialise the personal data of its membership. A pitch document published by The Guardian has Ager-Hanssen promising to allow advertisers to market to the app’s users based on the data it collects from them, including location data.

A Conservative spokesperson claimed to The Guardian that the app “did not progress beyond the pitch stage”. Emails obtained by that media organization seem to indicate otherwise however as they suggest officials worked through the summer on the project.

Cori Crider, a lawyer who runs Foxglove, a non-profit group campaigning for fairness in the tech sector, told The Guardian: “It’s rather sad, really, to see the Conservative party treating their own brand and membership like a failing asset to be raided and stripped for cash as if they were some kind of vulture fund.”

Next Conservative Party Leader Odds

BetOnline has odds on the Next Conservative Party Leader.

Penny Mordant comes in as the 2-1 favorite, Kemi Badenoch is listed at 3-1 odds.

All others come in at 8-1 or greater odds.

Just last week the Guardian broke another story that Mordaunt’s rivals in a future Conservative leadership contest have been blamed for briefing coup rumours meant to ruin her chances of eventually taking over from Rishi Sunak.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com