The UK Government should consider establishing a digital Atlantic Charter as a new mechanism to reassure users that their digital rights are guaranteed. This innovation would demonstrate the UK's commitment to protecting and supporting users, and establish a formal basis for collaboration with the US on this issue.

The Charter would be voluntary, but would be underpinned by a framework setting out clearly the respective legal obligations in signatory countries. This would help ensure alignment, if not in law, then in what users can expect in terms of liability and protections.

"The secretive world of the tech giants"

The Committee's report outlines disturbing evidence of the activities undertaken by companies in various political campaigns dating from around 2010, including the use of hacking, of disinformation, and of voter suppression through alleged violence and intimidation.

One company, SCL, used behavioural micro-targeting to support their campaign messages ahead of USA mid-term elections in 2014, later claiming that in just one of their campaigns the 1.5 million advertising impressions they generated created a 30% uplift in voter turnout (against the predicted turnout) for the targeted groups.

The Committee also found evidence that another company, AIQ, used tools that "scrape" user profile data from LinkedIn. The tool acts similarly to online human behaviour, searching LinkedIn user profiles, and obtaining their contacts and all accompanying information, such as users' place of work, location and job title.

The inquiry heard of the links between SCL and Christian Kalin of Henley & Partners and their involvement in election campaigns. Mr Kalin ran "citizenship-by-investment" programmes, which involved the selling of countries' passports to investors, usually from countries that face travel restrictions.

"In this inquiry we have pulled back the curtain on the secretive world of the tech giants, which have acted irresponsibly with the vast quantities of data they collect from their users. Despite concerns being raised, companies like Facebook made it easy for developers to scrape user data and to deploy it in other campaigns without their knowledge or consent.



Throughout our inquiry these companies have tried to frustrate scrutiny and obfuscate in their answers. The light of transparency must be allowed to shine on their operations and they must be made responsible, and liable, for the way in which harmful and misleading content is shared on their sites.



I believe what we have discovered so far is the tip of the iceberg. There needs to be far greater analysis done to expose the way advertising and fake accounts are being used on social media to target people with disinformation during election periods. The ever-increasing sophistication of these campaigns, which will soon be helped by developments in augmented reality technology, make this an urgent necessity.



Data crimes are real crimes, with real victims. This is a watershed moment in terms of people realising they themselves are the product, not just the user of a free service. Their rights over their data must be protected.



- Damian Collins MP, Chair

The Committee's final report, which will also include further conclusions based on the interrogation of data and other evidence, is expected before the end of the year.



The Government has two months to respond. To read in more depth and detail about our recommendations, read our interim report (PDF) in full or see more on our website.

If you're interested in the work of the Committee, find out more about their other inquiries.