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{{data.paywallPrompt.callToAction}}This was published 7 years ago
Cambridge Analytica, the 'psychographic' data firm behind Donald Trump, eyes Australian move
A firm credited with helping Donald Trump win the US presidency by using unprecedented volumes of personal data to "determine the personality of every single adult" is contemplating an expansion into the Australian political arena.
The subject of fascination, scepticism and concern in the 2016 US election, Cambridge Analytica was paid millions of dollars to create comprehensive "psychographic" profiles of Americans based on their basic details, consumer habits, social media activity and psychological traits.
Using the OCEAN personality scale - an acronym for openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism - alongside thousands of different pieces of data on every individual, the firm claimed to be able to predict how citizens would vote. It passed the information on so the Trump campaign could target key demographics with finely tuned material playing to their hopes and dreams or fears and anxieties.
"There are no longer any experts except Cambridge Analytica," respected Republican pollster Frank Luntz said of the firm's role in Mr Trump's shock victory. "They were Trump's digital team who figured out how to win."
Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix is about to visit Australia. Joshua Bright
The company amassed up to 5000 data points on every American adult and conducted hundreds of thousands of personality surveys, combining them to pinpoint millions of possible Trump voters. Their analysis of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - the rust-belt states that unexpectedly fell to the Republican candidate - proved prescient, while most traditional pollsters ended up on the wrong side of history.
Cambridge Analytica chief executive officer Alexander Nix said big data was being used to do things considered impossible only five years ago. A better understanding of target audiences not only shapes political messaging but helps determine the allocation of campaign resources, which battleground electorates to visit and where to buy advertising .
"The sheer volume of data is allowing us to look at audiences in ever increasing granularity, to start to understand exactly what messages individuals need to receive," he told Fairfax Media.
The company's point of difference from existing micro-targeting outfits, Mr Nix said, is the scale of its data "particularly in countries like the United States where the data legislation is more permissive, which allows us a truly holistic understanding of that audience" and the ability to "synthesise" it with the psychographic information. Doing the work is a large team of PhD-wielding scientists, including cosmologists and physicists.
The firm has been credited with helping Donald Trump take the US presidency. Evan Vucci
"Data science is not a panacea," Mr Nix said, contending that it is a powerful tool allowing a political campaign to boost a "really good candidate with clear, sound policies that are well articulated, that resonate with the electorate".
Cambridge Analytica is a recently established offshoot of the SCL Group, a behavioural communications company that has operated in over 100 countries since the 1990s. As well as political and commercial campaigns, the company has worked extensively with governments on "psychological warfare" and the use of soft power in armed conflict.
Now, Mr Nix said the time might be right look at the Australian market.
An impending trip "will be an opportunity to understand a little bit more about the landscape there", he said, when asked about Australian interest in the company's work. "The timing is propitious. I think now might be a good time, given our recent work in countries like the United States, to maybe have a dialogue."
They were Trump's digital team who figured out how to win
Australia's compulsory voting system means the company would focus on undecided and swinging voters rather than impacting turnout as it did in the US.
While the firm is strongly associated with the Republican side of politics in the US and the 'Leave' campaign in Britain, it has backed campaigns across the political spectrum. Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of right-wing website Breitbart News who now serves as White House chief strategist, was reportedly on the company's board.
"Clearly in countries like the United States, you pick a side and you back it," Mr Nix said. The company also worked for Republican contenders Ted Cruz and Ben Carson and was reportedly backed by Robert Mercer, a hedge fund billionaire and prolific conservative donor.
In September, the Trump campaign paid Cambridge Analytica $5 million for its work, raising the eyebrows of privacy advocates concerned about the increasing commercial application of personal data.
But Mr Nix said people should not feel uneasy, arguing the data his firm collates is not particularly sensitive and is only useful to data science teams like his. .
"I think most people are aware that when they use things like supermarket loyalty cards or credit cards or they opt in on social media to share data and so forth that some of this information is being used for marketing and targeting purposes and they don't really have a problem with that because they understand, as we do, that this data isn't harmful or intrusive," he said.
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Fergus Hunter is a crime reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He previously reported on federal politics, education and communications at Parliament House in Canberra.