If you’ve been scrolling through social media lately, you’ve probably seen ads reminding you to register to vote. At first glance, these ads seem like a helpful public service reminder to do your civic duty. But some of these ads aren’t so innocent; they lead users to websites that harvest sensitive personal information and then sell it behind the scenes.
If you don’t want to be tracked or profiled, skip the ads and go directly to Vote.gov, the official government website for voter registration.
Example: What Personal Data Elon Musk’s Voter Registration Site Collects
Private websites that offer voting information, registration help, or links to election resources may have privacy practices that are substantially different from those of government election agencies. One example is Elon Musk’s VoteSafe.org, a private voting information site backed by America PAC (political action committee). It is not a government election website or a state voter registration system.
Depending on how a person uses the site, VoteSafe may request or collect personal information about its users, including:
- Full name and date of birth
- Physical address, email address, and phone numbers
- IP address and location
- Your activity on the site, including every link you click and every page you look at
- Your voter registration status, but from your voter file at America PAC, not from your state’s official records
- Browsing and search history
- Information collected passively or obtained from third parties
What Does VoteSafe Do With My Personal Data?
VoteSafe isn’t just collecting this information. It also shares and sells it. According to its privacy policy, the site may sell your voter registration data to its “business partners.” So, what does this mean, exactly?
VoteSafe is set up to broadly share your information and allow advertisers to track your activity across websites, apps, and streaming platforms. It can also sell “inferences” about you. This refers to guesses the website creates about you based on the data it collects. These aren’t facts you provide yourself, but predictions about your personality, habits, or behavior. Inferences often power targeted advertising, and in this case, likely political profiling.
But that’s not all. Your information goes to Facebook’s ad-matching system, which then uses it to identify your Facebook and Instagram accounts. VoteSafe also sends your contact information to Google.
Then, VoteSafe sends a scrambled version of your email address to a third-party advertising company, which creates a unique identifier that follows your web activity. This data is then shared with X, the social network that Musk owns. If you have an X account, this usage data will be linked to it as well.
VoteSafe also sends your information to a third-party tracking company and an email/text marketing company.
Finally, the site creates a device fingerprint they can track, even if you delete your cookies.
Uh-Oh: I Already Submitted My Data to VoteSafe
You’re not the only one! If you already used VoteSafe to register to vote, you can still submit a privacy request. On the form, you’ll see several options under “Specify My Request.” These include:
- Delete: You want VoteSafe to erase your personal data.
- Unsubscribe: You want to stop receiving emails, texts, or other communications from VoteSafe.
- Processing: You want VoteSafe to stop or limit certain uses of your data (like for targeted advertising).
- Consent: You want to withdraw consent for data uses that require permission.
- Complaint: You want to file a formal complaint about how VoteSafe handled your data.
You can select multiple requests from the list above. You’ll also see other options on the form.
Keep in mind that your rights vary by state privacy laws.
Other Ways To Protect Your Data
You can follow a similar process for other websites you have shared your information with. The Network Advertising Initiative can teach you how to better control how websites use your personal info and how to assert your privacy rights.
Consider downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. This stops websites from sharing your visit data with Google Analytics.
How Should Voter Registration Records Be Handled?
States maintain official voter registration lists, government databases that track who’s registered, where they live, and whether they’ve voted in past elections. These lists are tightly regulated. Still, they are often subject to public records laws, which means some details can be disclosed to certain individuals and organizations. Your actual vote is always private.
What can be shared depends on your state law. Some states offer address confidentiality programs or allow voters with safety concerns to request that their voter registration information be confidential.
Private sites like VoteSafe aren’t part of this system and don’t adhere to the same voter privacy standards.
Don’t Get Duped: What To Watch Out For
America PAC allegedly spent $180,000 in just one week advertising the website on social media. Some of these are political ads attacking Democratic Senate candidates, a red flag that VoteSafe is partisan rather than neutral.
An official government voter registration website never shows political bias or favors a specific candidate or political party. If you find a website offering voter registration from a political ad, you’re likely not on an official government website. It’s safer to visit Vote.gov or your state’s election office instead.
The Best Place To Register To Vote or Request an Absentee Ballot
Each state has its own voter registration website. Most people do a quick Google search to find their state’s site. That’s fine, but check if the URL ends in .gov (or use the election-office link provided by your state or local government), since it’s easy to inadvertently give your voter information to Musk’s website or another private voter registration platform.
The best way to ensure you’re registering on the correct website for your state is to start from the official federal website, Vote.gov, run by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Vote.gov will then direct you to your state’s voter registration tool.
The EAC adheres to federal privacy laws such as the Privacy Act of 1974, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and the Freedom of Information Act. When you register to vote on vote.org, your information is protected in several ways. While it uses Google Analytics for anonymous usage data, including clicks and time spent on pages, the website does not:
- Use third-party cookies that store your personal information
- Track your internet activity
- Collect your personally identifiable information, except in limited circumstances where you provide it (such as if you reach out by email)
Find Vote.gov’s entire Privacy Policy here.
