Senior Conservative party officials worked out plans to hand over its entire membership database to a commercial venture promising to make tens of millions of pounds, the Guardian has revealed.
Leaked documents show Tory executives discussed exploiting members’ personal data to create a mobile phone app that could track users’ locations and allow major brands to advertise to Tory supporters. The party would take a cut from sales.
The project was evaluated over several months last year, with the aim of launching the “True Blue” rollout in time for the party’s conference in October.
The idea was developed by the boss of a cryptocurrency firm who had a string of failed businesses behind him. But senior Conservative officials appeared so impressed by the plan that they were prepared to provide the party’s membership database to take the proposal forward.
The True Blue project aimed to provide direct access to the party’s members to “increase donations” through digital payments, design “private messaging” based on demographic information, and “maximize” voter turnout by directing members to polling stations. voter ID card.
But it is the proposed commercialization of member data that will worry some party supporters. A presentation document illustrated with images of Rishi Sunak outlined a plan under which brands such as Amazon and Coca-Cola could advertise to party members. The presentation claimed that the app would allow companies to “geomarket” products based on the user’s location, and that the party would receive a share of the resulting sales.
A Conservative Party spokesman said the application “does not progress beyond the rollout stage”. But emails seen by the Guardian reveal officials were working on the project last summer, tailoring the content of the proposed application and requesting paperwork including a draft contract.
Lawyer Cori Crider, who runs Foxglove, a not-for-profit group that campaigns for justice in the tech sector, said: “It’s really sad to see the Conservative party treat its brand and its members like a failing entity to be raided for cash as if it were some sort of vulture fund.” They were robbed.
‘Super App’
The offer for the application came from Norwegian businessman Christen Ager-Hanssen, who said “big data is the new oil.” It rose to prominence during the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s before it collapsed. Further business misfortunes followed, including the collapse of Swedish newspaper Metro and an unsuccessful bid for UK media group Johnston Press.
According to a report, on June 29 last year Ager-Hanssen “had the pleasure of speaking” to Rishi Sunak to mail In X. It was the day of the summer party, one of the Conservative Party’s big annual fundraising campaigns. That same day, Ager-Hanssen sent an email to Conservative Party chief executive Stephen Massey with the subject: “Super App for the Conservative Party.”
The party took action. Ager-Hanssen was invited to meet with the chief data officer, marketing director and head of digital to discuss the idea.
Two weeks later, the Conservatives’ chief operating officer, Aimee Henderson, emailed Ager-Hanssen to say she had informed Massey that “our meeting this morning went well”.
He asked him to include the existing tiers of Tory membership, from the “Disraeli Club” and “Churchill Club” to the “Thatcher Club”, in the proposed application. On July 22, less than a month after he first approached the party, Ager-Hanssen told Henderson: “I just finished the latest version of the app based on your input.”
An accompanying presentation outlined a proposal that included ways users could easily donate to the party. However, it has been claimed that the real money-maker will come from the commission that big brands will pay to the party on sales made to True Blue users. Profits were to be split, with 25% given to Ager-Hanssen’s company, Addreax, and the remainder given to the Conservative party.
In the presentation, it was claimed that Addreax already has partnerships with brands such as Amazon, Coca-Cola and Apple. None of these companies contacted by the Guardian confirmed any involvement with Addreax or involvement in the True Blue project.
Using figures labeled “for illustrative purposes only” in the presentation, it was claimed that the party’s share of income could reach an estimated £160 million a year. This seems like a pretty ambitious target: The 1.25 million users required is more than seven times the party’s 172,000 members. But even a fraction of that estimate would increase the £47m the Conservative Party raised in donations last year.
The project also suggested providing voter ID cards to users of the app. Civil liberties advocates said rules introduced in 2022 that require voters to show government-issued identification such as passports and driver’s licenses at polling stations risk disenfranchising marginalized groups. Any change that would benefit Conservative Party members would likely reopen the debate.
‘next iteration’
A day after receiving the presentation, Henderson replied, “The changes and additions look great.” He said he would show the plan to party leaders and hoped for a “conference start date”: “I suspect that will create quite a stir!”
An unsigned draft contract seen by the Guardian says the Conservatives will give Addreax access to a “database of prospective and existing members”.
Work on the project continued throughout the summer. On Aug. 22, Henderson emailed Ager-Hanssen, copying from marketing, business projects and voter communications. He said party officials “have been working on branding and membership since our last meeting” and look forward to “the next version of the product soon.”
Henderson added that we “very urgently need” draft data sharing agreements and other documents to get board approval.
The Conservatives refused to say why the True Blue app had not been launched. At the end of September, Ager-Hanssen was ousted as CEO of the cryptocurrency company, which he told the Tories he would play a role in implementing.
The Guardian has seen no evidence that discussions of True Blue have continued after this date. The Conservatives refused to answer questions about Ager-Hanssen’s business records.
Neither Ager-Hanssen nor Addreax responded to requests for comment.