Sinn Féin 'questioned over Facebook data use'

Mary Lou McDonald is leader of Sinn Féin

Ireland's Data Protection Commission has written to Sinn Féin.

It is seeking information on how the party uses Facebook to target voters on the electoral register.

The Sunday Independent reports that people attending an internal training seminar were told "Facebook is king".

They were also urged to identify and engage with voters by cross-referencing data from the social media company with the party's own searchable digital electoral register database, Abú.

It is understood the Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon has written to the all-island party asking it about how it uses the Facebook information and whether it is GDPR compliant in that people are aware about how their information is being used.

Representatives of Fine Gael, one of the three parties in the Republic's coalition government, have recently been asking questions about who developed the Abú system, where information is stored, and who paid for it.