Technology, data and elections: A card game

Following the publication of our Technology, Data and Elections Checklist, we have created a deck of Tech, Data and Elections Playing Cards. Both the checklist and the deck of cards aim to give electoral observers and civil society the necessary tools to understand and question the role of technologies in the electoral process. The cards enable a playful way to explore with important topics such as:

• ♥ Hearts: Why does data protection matter during the election cycle?
• ♦ Diamonds: What tech is being used in the administration of elections?
• ♠ Spades: What regulations apply to political parties and other political actors during elections?
• ♣ Clubs: What is the role of the internet and social media during elections and political campaigns?

Each card has a question prompting players to think about what is happening in their electoral contexts. The cards aim to provoke discussions around the importance of privacy during the election cycle.

♥ Hearts: Why does data protection matter during the election cycle?

♥ Voter data is central to emerging ways of political campaigning. The contemporary reality of elections has fast outpaced applicable rules - which in recent years has prompted a surge in regulatory efforts aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability and the ethical use of data in electoral activities.

♥ These have ranged from investigations and the issuance of guidelines by international and domestic bodies to new legislation aiming to set limits on the use of data for political campaigning purposes. Despite these initiatives, the use of data in electoral context remains unregulated in many jurisdictions, which has allowed data-intensive practices such as micro-targeting to proliferate.

♥ National laws should recognise the right to privacy, including the protection of personal data. These laws should be regularly reviewed to ensure it is up to date and effective in addressing the challenges posed by the application of new technologies in the electoral context.

♦ Diamonds: What tech is used for the administration of elections?

♦ Electoral processes - along with elections themselves - are one of the largest government data-gathering exercises undertaken, making them susceptible to data exploitation and privacy violations.

♦ States are increasingly employing technologies to coordinate the running of their electoral processes. Governments give various reasons for the use of these technologies - such as increasing transparency, facilitating voter identification, fighting corruption, and increasing confidence in election results.

♦ But the databases and the devices used to facilitate electoral processes are vulnerable to abuse, manipulation, and theft. Moreover, technological failures can lead to erroneous results, the annulment of elections, or worse. These concerns, combined the potential for privacy violations and exploitation of data used in electoral processes, raise serious questions about if and when new election technologies should be deployed.

♦ Voter registers shouldn’t include personal data other than that which is required to establish eligibility to vote - and the data contained within it shouldn’t be made public by default: access to and use of such data should be regulated.

♦ Read more about this in our explainer on election technology in Kenya.

♠ Spades: What regulations apply to political parties and other political actors during elections?

♠ There is growing recognition by election monitoring organisations that the rules regulating the conduct of political parties and other actors during elections need to be assessed in light of the increased reliance on technologies and on personal data. With elections having become more and more “data-driven”, it is critically important that all organisations involved in political campaigns process personal data on voters in compliance with well-established data protection principles.

♠ Increasingly, political opinions can be revealed or inferred through predictive analytical and profiling tools from a range of sources of information, including those that may be public, such as magazines and newspapers read and membership in interest groups, among others.

♠ The risks of profiling, predicting and micro-targeting can include echo chambers, the discrimination of minoritised voters - as well as their disenfranchisement, the possible chilling of political participation, increased polarisation, the erosion of robust democratic debate, and the weakening of election integrity.

♠ Despite these risks, data protection laws can include exemptions to data protection requirements for political parties. In order to protect voter privacy, data protection laws should be fully applied to the processing of personal data by political parties and other political actors.

♣ Clubs: What is the role of the internet and social media during elections and political campaigns?

♣ The Internet and social media have helped many people and communities to organise politically, to participate in public debates, to express their opinions (including dissent) online, and to receive information, including during election campaigns.

♣ Equally, current digital communications technologies have put into question the effectiveness of some of the safeguards adopted to ensure free and fair elections - including the spread of disinformation and the manipulation of individuals’ political opinions.

♣ Vast amounts of personal data of internet and social media users is collected and processed to allow disinformation or manipulative content to reach targeted audiences, despite concerns that the exploitation of personal data negatively affects voters. These concerns are of course heightened during election campaigning periods, but are also relevant anytime; seemingly non-political online content can result in the mobilisation of people politically.

♣ Social media companies should be transparent about their profiling activities, and should provide clear information about the parameters of their algorithms. It is crucial for democracy that these algorithms enable users to scroll through and receive a diversity of viewpoints.

Download and play our tech, data and elections card game!

The deck of cards is available as a downloadable PDF file. If you are interested in receiving a physical deck so that you can play card games whilst you are staying up on those long election results nights, feel free to reach out to [email protected].

Please also consider donating to protect privacy.