How Political Campaigns Use Your Personal Information

Social Media observers question the legal framework for online election campaigns

- Yoshitha Perera

Your vote is your business. Or is it? It is your right to keep your personal information to yourself and cast your vote independently. However, when elections grow closer, your personal information becomes a precious commodity for many looking to exploit it.

Having faced two postponements, Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary elections of August 5 became the biggest political activity to take place in the country, since the world came to a halt with the outbreak of COVID-19.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) recorded a landslide victory after winning 145 of the 225 parliamentary seats. The opposition was led by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) with 54 seats and the National People’s Power (NPP) came in third place securing three seats. Meanwhile, the United National Party (UNP), one of the oldest parties, won no seats in Parliament.

Elections are more than just the act of voting, while the entire election cycle is highly reliant on data. Acts such as voter registration, voter authentication, voting and results transmission, all involve the collection of personal data to some extent. Political parties especially use data to drive their campaigns, from deciding where to hold their rallies, deciding on which campaign messages to focus on and in which area, as well as how to target supporters, unsure voters and non-supporters by including commercials in social media.