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Timeline of Correspondence with Dominic Cummings

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Timeline of Correspondence with Dominic Cummings Ii[Tli'li11~of correspondence with Dominic Cummin_g~~ - Date Correspondence _______ 30/08/2018 Ema ii from Dominic Cummings: Con firmed he will sign the undertaking and can be interviewed in October. - -----1 15/08/2018 j Ema ii from Danielle Whalley to Dominic Cummings asking for dates he is available to b e interviewed and a copy of a draft undertaking for him to sign. - ­ 08/08/2018 j Ema ii from Dominic Cummings to confirm he will be interviewed. 02/08/2018 Witness letter sent to Dominic Cummings: The contents confirm that "the ICO has reasonable grounds to believe that a pot ential breach of the Data Protection Act, may have occurred in regards to the use, transfer or sharing and processing of personal data between Vote Leave and AIQ' "We wish to interview you as a witness to the matters we are investigating". The inte rview conducted with you will be audio recorded in order to assist us in obtaining your full account and ensure that our conversation is accurately recorded" - ---- 10/07/2018 Ema ii from Dominic Cummings to Danielle Whalley answering the questions asked in the letter 19/06/18 -­ ------------- 06/07/2018 Ema ii from Dominic Cummings to Danielle Whalley including 2 attachments. DC a dvises in his email that a further letter explaining the context would be sent shortly. - 03/07/2018 Cha ser email from Danielle Whalley to Dominic Cummings regarding the letter dated 19/06/18. ------- 26/06/2018 Ema ii from Dominic Cummings confirming receipt of the letter dated 19/06/18 -----< 19/06/2018 Letter from Danielle Whalley to Dominic Cummings: Further questions regarding Vote Leave and Aggregate IQ to assist with our inve stigations. - ----------~--------' 22/11/2017 Ema ii from Steve Wood to Dominic Cummings & Henry de Zoete: Con firmation that an Information Notice had been sent to Vote Leave and a resp onse received from Venner Shipley, acting on behalf of them. Steve Wood advi ses that Venner Shipley have not supplied detailed answers to the ICO's ques tions. Although the above are no longer formally involved with Vote Leave, they hold key knowledge about how data analytics were used within the cam paign. In light of the gaps Steve Wood request a meeting with both Dominic and Henry. -- 09/08/2017 EmaiI from ICO to Dominic Cummings: Confirming receipt of his response and to advise that we may wish to contact Vote Leav e in due course with further enquiries. - 16/07/2017 Letter from Dominic Cummings to ICO: • AIQ hired for direct marketing • AIQ were given information ----- • Allegations that AIQ shared data with other companies are false • Only relationship between Vote Leave and BeLeave.is that Vote Leave made a donation to Be Leave after the Electoral Commission stated that they could. Requested evidence of this in further enquiries. • Someone from BeLeave may have attended regular Steering Group to discuss the campaign or a similar meeting. • Some data analytics conducted in house and hired some consultants to provide specialist data science help. Requested further details in next round of enquiries • Data Science team contractually bound to uphold the highest standards in terms of data protection. Believes that no data science consultants held non-anonymised personal data on their company systems. • Very limited (if any) paid advertising on Twitter. Spent a lot of money on Facebook. Used Facebook to run surveys to add to polling data. Used information obtained via Facebook to add to polling data - requesting clarification on this. • Generated large amounts of personal data from a football competition. • Nationbuilder was used for activist management - need further information on this. • Data scraped for free from the web. (unable to obtain letter through link-17/07/17) - ­ 17/05/2017 The letter dated 4 May 2017 was sent to Dominic Cummings by email. Within the email Steve Wood advises that Vote Leave "are regarded as part of the wider ·invesfigatibnlhoffgnTiidividual 'cfecisioris wm ·oe· made· about the extent of the investigation on different elements". 14/05/2017 Email from Dominic Cummings to Steve Wood: Confirmation that if the questions could be sent to him directly he will answer to his best ability. - 13/05/2017 Email from Matthew Elliot from Vote Leave to Steve Wood: Advising the best person to answer the questions would be Dominic Cummings -- a_nd Henry de Zoete _____ ---------------------< 04/05/2017 Letter from Steve Wood to Victoria Woodcock at Vote Leave: To arrange a meeting with Vote Leave's senior leadership to discuss their use of the services of Aggregate IQ ("AIQ"). Within the correspondence specific points for discussion are addressed. • Upholding information rights ICO. Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 SAF Information Commissioner's Office Tel. 0303 123 1113 Fax. 01625 524 510 www.ico.org.uk Victoria Woodcock Vote Leave Limited Westminster Tower 3 Albert Embankment London SE1 7SP By email only to: 4 May 2017 Dear Ms Woodcock Reported use of personal data by AggregateIQ and the use of data analytics by Vote Leave for political purposes The Information Commissioner's Office is the UK's independent authority established to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. As Head of International Strategy and Intelligence, my responsibilities include tracking strategic issues or risks related to privacy and data protection. You may be aware that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has been considering recent media coverage and enquiries regarding data analytics use by political parties and whether this use of data is compliant with the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act 1998. In this context we will be contacting a number of organisations, and intend to publicise our overall findings later this year. Given your reported use of the services of technology company 'AggregateIQ', we would like to arrange a meeting with Vote Leave's senior leadership to discuss these matters in more detail. I would be grateful if you could provide us with some suitable dates for a meeting to take place within the next three weeks. The Information Commissioner requests your cooperation in helping us to establish the facts in order that we may make an informed decision about what further action, if any, is necessary. To assist you in preparing for our meeting, we • ICO. Information Commissioner's Office thought it would be helpful to set out some of the points we would like to discuss: (1) the relationship between Vote Leave and AggregateIQ (and any other relevant group of companies); (2) the relationship between Vote Leave and the campaign group BeLeave; (3) what, if any, services or data provided by AggregateIQ have been used by Vote Leave; (4) any use of data analytics services by Vote Leave; (5) any use of data extracted from Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform; (6) what types of personal data were held by Vote Leave in advance of the EU referendum and are being held currently, including electoral roll information; (7) how (and where) that data was and is being processed, and for what purpose; (8) the sources of the personal data processed by Vote Leave in advance of the EU referendum and subsequently; (9) any information that was and is being provided to individuals to assist them in understanding what data is being gathered about them and how and for what purpose it is being used; and (10) any other information you feel may assist us in understanding: a. how data has been used by Vote Leave in the run-up to the EU referendum and subsequently; and b. how the organisation complies with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. We look forward to discussing these points with you at our meeting and thank you in advance for your cooperation. Yours sincerely Steve Wood Head of International Strategy & Intelligence Information Commissioner's Office -------------------------From: Matthew Elliott••••••••••••• Sent: 13 May 2017 00:59 To: Steve Wood Cc: Subject: Email from Matthew Elliott re VL letter dated 4th May - 13 05 17 Dear Steve, Apologies for the delay getting back to you. I am on the road at the moment in the US. The best people to answer your questions are Dominic Cummings and Henry de Zoete, who were Vote Leave's Campaign Director and Digital Director respectively. They are both happy to help you with this, and I have cc'd them to this email. Best, Matthew On 4 May 2017 at 04:57, Steve Wood <Slevc.Wol)([email protected],.;o.1-1nt.uk-"· wrote: Dear Matthew, I'm forwarding this to you, as directed by the out of the office message I received. Grateful if you can confirm receipt. Regards Steve Steve Wood Head of International Strategy & Intelligence Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. T. 01625 545706 www.ico.org.uk For secure emails over GSI please use ~.leve.woocl('.jiicll.gsi.qoy.uk Matthew Elliott 3 111111111111111__________________________________ From: Dominic Cummings Sent: 14 May 2017 05:27 To: Steve Wood Cc: Subject: Email from Dominic Cummings requesting VL ltr dated 4th may - 14 05 17 Hi Steve Ifyou send me through your questions I will do my best to answer, the attachment has dropped off the email chain. I am abroad right now with intermittent email. Best wishes Dominic On 13 May 2017 at 00:59, Matthew Elliott wrote: Dear Steve, Apologies for the delay getting back to you. I am on the road at the moment in the US. The best people to answer your questions are Dominic Cummings and Henry de Zoete, who were Vote Leave's Campaign Director and Digital Director respectively.
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