The Tories want to keep us quiet – but we’re not backing down

The Tories have tried to shrug off our challenge over their voter data grab with smirks and threats, but we’re not backing down. They claim their response to our legal letter is confidential and bound by copyright, but we plan to publish it anyway.

We’ve already taken the first formal step in legal proceedings against the Tories over data protection breaches on their website, as they try to harvest voter information in the run up to the election. We received a response, but the Tories claim we can’t publish it because it is “confidential” and “the intellectual property of the Conservative Party”.

This is an extraordinary position to adopt for a party whose leader promised to govern with “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”. And it’s a strange stance if you are confident you can win in court.

We have informed the Tories that we will be publishing their response this week. We’re giving them fair warning: if they really think their letter is “confidential” and “the intellectual property of the Conservative Party” then they can apply for an injunction.

Political parties are harvesting more and more of our data, so they can run micro-targeted divisive campaigns out of public view. We’ll keep shining a light on these murky practices. And we’ll keep fighting to strengthen our democratic rights.

• As the General Election looms, anything you can give to support our legal challenge will help us to protect our data rights as voters.