Your Data, Our Democracy

Around the world, as elections become increasingly data-intensive, our personal data is becoming a political asset for campaigns to leverage in pursuit of electoral success and political power. This educational short film explains to voters some of the ways in which our personal data is being used and alludes to the larger democratic consequences of the 'datafication' of politics. What does the development of the 'Influence Industry' mean for our democracies, and what can we do about it?

Watch the animation in English or Dutch to learn more:

If you want to dive deeper into the topic, check out our Voter’s Guide, which explains in accessible terms where political campaigns source personal data, what kinds of data they collect, and how they use it to target and persuade voters. The guide demystifies campaigning techniques like ‘digital listening’, ‘micro-targeting’ and ‘A/B testing’, and offers voters 7 essential tips to detox their personal data. The Voter's Guide is also available in Dutch here!

Related content

The Glass Room: Capsule 2.0

The Glass Room presents Capsule 2.0, 'Nothing Personal?', our latest showcase of digital objects, both old and new. This second capsule explores how technologies are designed, branded and engineered to collect deeply personal data and influence our real-time behaviours.

Campaign Apps Ghana 2020

How was a mobile phone shop in Vietnam able to access personal data from voters in Ghana? The third part of our Data & Politics series on Medium looks at campaign apps in the 2020 Ghanaian election.

Why Investigate Election Apps?

The second in this series of articles on Medium from our Data & Politics project looks at how the 'appification' of nearly every aspect of our lives has spread to politics, elections and issue campaigning.

Transparency in Data-Driven Campaigns

Tactical Tech’s Data & Politics Team is excited to announce that the Swedish Postcode Foundation will support our latest initiative to create transparency on the use of personal data in political campaigns and the surrounding influence industry.

Reflections on the European Democracy Action Plan

If Europe’s elections are to remain contests of campaigns’ political ideas and not of their digital strategies, the systemic challenges to democracy must not be overlooked by the fires of the present moment. Varoon Bashyakarla from our Data & Politics team writes for the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.

Data & Politics: Global Partnerships

In order to investigate the 'Influence Industry' in different contexts and countries, our Data & Politics project has partnered with a diverse range of organisations and individuals in the Global South. Find out more about the work these partners do.