Democracy disrupted? Continuing the debate on the (mis)use of personal data in political campaigning

Elisabetta BiasinCentre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) – KU Leuven

COMPACT - Brussels Symposium Disinformation in the European Elections 2019: The role of social media & technology trendsPermanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU, BrusselsOctober 21st, 2019

Panel: Role of social media platforms: How can data reliant platforms act responsibly?

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- Foreword

o Preliminary information

- Introduction

- The ‘online’ shift in political campaigning

- …and potential pitfalls: micro- targeting and online manipulation

- Micro-targeting and ‘online manipulation

- Context

- Ecosystem and platforms

- Fundamental rights and relevant legal frameworks

- Focus: Privacy and Data protection

- Use of personal data in the course of political campaigns

- Basic DP principles remain relevant for processing of personal data

within political campaigning

- …confronted with current scenarios

- ‘Key data protection issues relevant in the electoral process’ (social

media platforms)

- Conclusions

Content

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Elisabetta Biasin

Legal Researcher, KU Leuven Centre for IT

& IP Law

Openness

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

44%

79%

34%

60%

42%

ForewordPreliminary Information (1/2)

* BIG5/ OCEAN - Short Personality Test (discovermyprofile.com)

10; Clothing; Business; Speaker; America; North American

Latin America; Friendship; Year; Football; Kilogram: App

Store; Arts and music; Association; Activism;Company;

BadTaste.it; Whale; Bed and breakfast; Belize; biographies;

Burbank County; Dogs Mexico; State Heads; Food; China;

Mexico City; Concept; album; Conscience; Culture;

Curriculum vitae; Diary of a nerd superstar (TV series);

Download; Egon Schiele; Europa;; Happiness; Feminism;

Festival; Music festivals; Flanders; Friends (The Beach Boys

album) Gay pride; Guatemala; Guess (clothing) Taste

(philosophy); Jean-Michel Basquiat; Mexico; Microphone;

Milhouse Van Houten; Grounds; Heavy metal music; Jazz

music; Minimalist music; Rock music; Nature; New York

Times; New world; Pacific Ocean; One; Organization; New

Zealand Labor Party; Institutional Revolutionary Party;

Pediatrics; People's Daily, China; Play (telecommunications);

Poetry; Product (economy) Province of Entre Ríos; Punk

rock; People's Daily; Reality; Life, Wardrobe; Xfactor (GB);

Sziget Festival; Sociology; Social Media; Soccer; Veneto;

Venice; EU.

* Elisabetta Biasin’s interests (Facebook)

* @bisilisib Twitter photo (courtesy of Matteo Flora)

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ForewordPreliminary Information (2/2)

* The Guardian website, section ‘The Cambridge Analytica files’ (accessed

20/10/2019)

*Cambridge Analytica, Logo

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IntroductionThe ‘online’ shift in political

campaigning

• The traditional system of political

campaigning has evolved

• Elections have become increasingly

‘datified’ (ICO, 2018)

• Political parties are taking advantage of new

techniques in digital campaigns

• Political parties target individual voters

with messages in keeping with their

particular interests and values

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Introduction… and potential pitfalls: micro-

targeting and online manipulation

‘Microtargeting of electoral canvasing changes

the rules of public speech, reducing the space for

debate and interchange of ideas’ – ‘requires a

democratic debate on the use and exploitation of

data for political campaigning and decision-

making’ (EDPS Ethics Advisory Group, 2018)

• Beyond data protection: micro-targeted online

environment facilitates ‘filter-bubbles’ / ‘walled

gardens’ – in these environments, individuals

encounter fewer opinions, likely resulting in

increased political polarisation (Alcott et al,

2016)

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IntroductionMicro-targeting and ‘online

manipulation’

Online manipulation has been depicted as the

result of a three stage process (EDPS, 2018)

Data collection of voters/individuals

Audience segmentation through profiling

Micro-targeting

Multi-layered process: i) the advertising

ecosystem; ii) non commercial advertisers.

Further factors: Use of ‘Big Data’; ‘Artificial

Intelligence’

1.2.

3.

* ‘Micro-targeting’ Example through illustration (ICO, 2018)

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ContextEcosystem and platforms

• Political parties and foundations

• Data brokers and data analytics

companies

• Social medial platforms/ online

platforms

• National electoral authorities

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ContextFundamental rights and relevant legal frameworks

• Data Protection and other freedoms

• Privacy and protection of data

• Freedom of thought, conscience and

religion

• Freedom of expression and

information

• Freedom of assembly and

association

• Media Pluralism

• Free elections

• Data protection rules and principles

• Audio-visual media rules

• Electoral regulations

• Consumer protection

• Competition law

Security

Fundamental rights and values Legal frameworks

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Focus: Privacy and Data ProtectionUse of personal data in the course of political campaigns

Personal data revealing political opinion is a special category of data under the GDPR.

As a general principle, the processing thereof is prohibited in principles and subject to

conditions.

Personal data made public, or shared by individual voters, are still subject to and

protected by EU data protection law

Transparency: information to the individuals who are being analysed and whose personal

data are being processed, whether data has been obtained directly or indirectly

Solely automated decision-making, including profiling, is restricted. Profiling connected to

targeted campaign messaging shall in principle only be lawful with the valid explicit

consent of the data subject.

In case of targeting, adequate information should be provided to voters

(EDPB, 2019)

Focus: Privacy and Data ProtectionBasic DP principles remain relevant for processing of personal data

within political campaigning…

Lawfulness, fairness andtransparencyData should be processed lawfully, fairly and in

a transparent manner

Purpose specificationData should be collected for specified, explicit

and legitimate purposes and not further

processed in a manner that is incompatible with

those purposes

Data MinimizationData shall be adequate, relevant and

limited to what is necessary in relation to

the purposes for which they are processed

Data AccuracyData shall be accurate and, where necessary,

kept up to date

Storage limitationData should be kept in a form which permits

identification of data subjects for no longer

than necessary

Data Security Data shall be processed in a manner that

ensures appropriate security of the personal

data

1. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

(GDPR, art 5)

Focus: Privacy and Data Protection…confronted with current scenarios

Data Protection issues raised by political parties’ use of data analytics

and micro-targeting

- Lack of processing information towards data subject (eg. in the use of

electoral register)

- Lack of fair processing information and due diligence relation to personal

information obtained from data brokers

- Use of software to screen individual’s names for likely ethnicity or age

- Lack of fair processing in relation to the use of personal information for

micro-targeting on social media

- Use of third party online campaigning platforms

Platform advertising models:

- Transparency to the user

- Transparency of political advertising

(ICO, 2018)

Focus: Privacy and Data Protection‘Key data protection issues relevant in the

electoral process’ (social media platforms)

(Commission guidance on the application of Union data protection law in the electoral context, 2018)

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- Regulating online political micro-targeting –

challenges and perspectives

- ‘Online political micro-targeting’ >< freedom of

expression

- Precise workings and effects of online political

micro-targeting are unclear

(Borgesius et al, 2018)

- Data Protection: Regulatory oversight at EU level

- (EDPS, 2018) regulators should aim for a

collective diagnosis of the problem Coordinated

effects with other Authorities

- Regulation amending Regulation 1141/2014

- Complete and enforcement of DP rules

Conclusions1/3

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- Data Protection: Regulatory oversight on micro-targeting at

a national level:

Conclusions2/3

- ICO (UK)

- Data Protection Commission

(Ireland)

- CNIL (France)

- APD (Belgium)

- UODO (Poland)

- Hellenic Data Protection

Authority (Greece)

- Lithuanian DPA

- CNPD (Portugal)

- Slovenian DPA

- AEPD (Spain)

- Garante per la

Protezione dei Dati

Personali (Itally)

Existing guidance

Enforcement examples

- ICO - CNIL

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- Transparency measures regarding political micro-

targeting:

- AMDL in EU MS: ‘20th Century regulations for

online platforms’ (Kergueno, 2019) (also: Tambini,

2017)

- The EU Code of Practices: transparency

encouraged (but a self-regulatory instrument >

enforcement)

- Platform ad archives: a potential governance

tool for online political advertising (Leersen et al

2019)

Conclusions3/3

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Thank you!

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KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) - imec

Sint-Michielsstraat 6, box 3443

BE-3000 Leuven, Belgium

http://www.law.kuleuven.be/citip

Elisabetta Biasin

Legal researcher

KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law – imec

Elisabetta.biasin@kuleuven.be

@bisilisib

Annex

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- Slide 5: Information Commissioner's’ Office (ICO), ‘Democracy disrupted? Personal information and political

influence’ (2018)

- Slide 6: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), ‘Report of the EDPS Ethics Advisory Group’ (2018).

- Slide 7: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Opinion on online manipulation and personal data’

(Opinion 3/2018, 2018)

- Slide 10: European Data Protection Board (EDPB), ‘Statement 2/2019 on the use of personal data in the

course of political campaigns’ (2019)

- Slide 13: European Commission, ‘Commission guidance on the application of Union data protection law in

the electoral context’ (2018)

- Slide 14: Zuiderveen Borgesius, F J, Möller, J, Kruikemeier, S, Ó Fathaigh, R, Irion, K, Dobber, T, Bodo, B

and de Vreese, C, ‘Online Political Microtargeting: Promises and Threats for Democracy’ (2018) 14(1)

Utrecht Law Review, 82.

- Slide 16: Tambini, D, Internet and electoral campaigns. Study on the use of internet in electoral campaigns

(Council of Europe study, DGI(2017)11); Leerssen, P, Ausloos, J, Zarouali, B, Helberger, N, de Vreese, C H

(2019) 8(4) ‘Platform ad archives: promises and pitfalls’ Internet Policy Review <https://policyreview.info/

articles/analysis/platform-ad-archives-promises-and-pitfalls> accessed 20 October 2019

AnnexReferences

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- Slide 2: [Image] Element5Digital, on Unsplash.com

- Slide 3: [Photo] Courtesy of Matteo Flora

- Slide 5: [Image] Derek Thomson, on Unsplash.com

- Slide 6: [Image] available on Unsplash.com

- Slide 7: [Illustration] ICO, ‘Democracy disrupted? Personal information and political influence’, 2018, 25.

- Slide 8: [Photo] available on Wikimedia Commons

- Slide 12: [Image] Mohdammed Ali, on Unsplash.com

- Slides 14, 15, 16; [Image] available on Pixabay

- Slide 17: [Image] available on Pixabay

AnnexImages Sources/Photo Credits