News and Research articles on Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia

Data-driven elections: implications and challenges for democratic societies

Colin J. Bennett, University of Victoria
David Lyon, Queen's University
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Dec 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1433

In the wake of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, it is timely to review the state of the debate about the impact of data-driven elections and to identify key questions that require academic research and regulatory response. The papers in this collection, by some of the world’s most prominent elections researchers, offer that assessment.

Discussing three factors that characterise the activities of political campaigners, this article demonstrates variations in who is using data in campaigns, what the sources of campaign data are, and how data informs communication.