Abstract
The vast amount of accumulated information and the technologies that store, process and disseminate it are producing deep changes in society. The amount of data generated by Internet users poses great opportunities and significant challenges for political scientists. Having a positive effect in many fields, business intelligence and analytics tools are used increasingly for political purposes. Pervasive digital tracking and profiling, in combination with personalization, have become a powerful toolset for systematically influencing user behaviour. When used in political campaigns or in other efforts to shape public policy, privacy issues intertwine with electoral outcomes. The practice of targeting voters with personalized messages adapted to their personality and political views, has already raised debates about political manipulation; however, studies focusing on privacy are still scarce. Focusing on the democracy aspects and identifying the threats to privacy stemming from the use of big data technologies for political purposes, this paper identifies long-term privacy implications which may undermine fundamental features of democracy such as fair elections and political equality of all citizens. Furthermore, this paper argues that big data analytics raises the need to develop alternative narratives to the concept of privacy.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altman, I.: Privacy regulation: culturally universal or culturally specific? J. Soc. Issues 33(3), 66–84 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1977.tb01883.x
Anstead, N.: Data-driven campaigning in the 2015 United Kingdom general election. Int. J. Press./Polit. 22(3), 294–313 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161217706163
Baruh, L., Popescu, M.: Big data analytics and the limits of privacy self-management. New Media Soc. 19(4), 579–596 (2017)
Bennett, C.J.: The European general data protection regulation: an instrument for the globalization of privacy standards? Inf. Polity 23(2), 239–246 (2018)
Boyd, D., Crawford, K.: Six Provocations for Big Data. Social Science Research Network, Rochester (2011)
Brown, I.: Social media surveillance. In: The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, pp. 1–7. American Cancer Society (2014). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118767771.wbiedcs122
Cadwalladr, C.: The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked. Guardian 7 (2017)
Calo, R.: The boundaries of privacy harm. Ind. LJ. 86, 1131 (2011)
Chen, H., et al.: Business intelligence and analytics: from big data to big impact. MIS Q. 36(4), 1165–1188 (2012)
Chesney, R., Citron, D.K.: Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security. Social Science Research Network, Rochester (2018)
Christl, W.: How companies use personal data against people. In: Automated Disadvantage, Personalized Persuasion, and the Societal Ramifications of the Commercial Use of Personal Information. Cracked Labs (2017)
Citron, D.K.: Technological due process. Wash. UL Rev. 85, 1249 (2007)
Citron, D.K., Pasquale, F.: The scored society: due process for automated predictions. Wash. L. Rev. 89, 1 (2014)
Couldry, N., Turow, J.: Advertising, big data and the clearance of the public realm: marketers’ new approaches to the content subsidy. Int. J. Commun. 8, 1710–1726 (2014)
Crawford, K., Schultz, J.: Big data and due process: toward a framework to redress predictive privacy harms. BCL Rev. 55, 93 (2014)
Custers, B.: Data dilemmas in the information society: introduction and overview. In: Custers, B., Calders, T., Schermer, B., Zarsky, T. (eds.) Discrimination and Privacy in the Information Society, vol. 3, pp. 3–26. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30487-3_1
Dahlgren, P.: The Political Web: Media, Participation and Alternative Democracy. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137326386
Dalton, R.J.: The potential of big data for the cross-national study of political behavior. Int. J. Sociol. 46(1), 8–20 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/00207659.2016.1130410
van Dijck, J.: Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: big data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveill. Soc. 12(2), 197–208 (2014)
Eijkman, Q.: Indiscriminate bulk data interception and group privacy: do human rights organisations retaliate through strategic litigation? In: Taylor, L., Floridi, L., van der Sloot, B. (eds.) Group Privacy. PSS, vol. 126, pp. 123–138. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46608-8_7
Ekbia, H., et al.: Big data, bigger dilemmas: a critical review. J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 66(8), 1523–1545 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23294
Fisher, L.E.: Guilt by expressive association: political profiling, surveillance and the privacy of groups. Ariz. L. Rev. 46, 621 (2004)
Floridi, L.: Group privacy: a defence and an interpretation. In: Taylor, L., Floridi, L., van der Sloot, B. (eds.) Group Privacy. PSS, vol. 126, pp. 83–100. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46608-8_5
Gandomi, A., Haider, M.: Beyond the hype: big data concepts, methods, and analytics. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 35(2), 137–144 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.10.007
Gibson, R.K.: Party change, social media and the rise of ‘citizen-initiated’ campaigning. Party Polit. 21(2), 183–197 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068812472575
Goold, B.J.: How Much Surveillance is Too Much? Some Thoughts on Surveillance, Democracy, and the Political Value of Privacy. Social Science Research Network, Rochester (2010)
Grassegger, H., Krogerus, M.: The data that turned the world upside down. Luettavissa, 28 (2017): http://motherboard.vice.com/read/big-data-cambridge-analytica-brexit-trump.Luettu
Grimmer, J.: We are all social scientists now: how big data, machine learning, and causal inference work together. PS: Polit. Sci. Polit. 48(1), 80–83 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096514001784
Helbing, D., Klauser, S.: How to make democracy work in the digital age. In: Helbing, D. (ed.) Towards Digital Enlightenment, pp. 157–162. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90869-4_12
Hildebrandt, M.: The Dawn of a Critical Transparency Right for the Profiling Era (2012)
Holtz-Bacha, D.C.: Professionalization of political communication. J. Polit. Mark. 1(4), 23–37 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1300/J199v01n04_02
Jain, P., et al.: Big data privacy: a technological perspective and review. J. Big Data 3(1), 25 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-016-0059-y
Janssen, M., van den Hoven, J.: Big and Open Linked Data (BOLD) in government: a challenge to transparency and privacy? Gov. Inf. Q. 32(4), 363–368 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2015.11.007
Jenkins, J.C., et al.: Political behavior and big data. Int. J. Sociol. 46(1), 1–7 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/00207659.2016.1130409
Jin, X., et al.: Significance and challenges of big data research. Big Data Res. 2(2), 59–64 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bdr.2015.01.006
Karpf, D.: Digital politics after Trump. Ann. Int. Commun. Assoc. 41(2), 198–207 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2017.1316675
Katz, R.S., Mair, P.: Changing models of party organization and party democracy: the emergence of the cartel party. Party Polit. 1(1), 5–28 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068895001001001
Kosinski, M., et al.: Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 110(15), 5802–5805 (2013)
Kreiss, D., Howard, P.: New challenges to political privacy: lessons from the first US Presidential race in the Web 2.0 era. Int. J. Commun. 4, 1032–1050 (2010)
Kreiss, D., Jasinski, C.: The tech industry meets presidential politics: explaining the democratic party’s technological advantage in electoral campaigning, 2004–2012. Polit. Commun. 33(4), 544–562 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2015.1121941
Leppäniemi, M., et al.: Targeting young voters in a political campaign: empirical insights into an interactive digital marketing campaign in the 2007 finnish general election. J. Nonprofit Public Sect. Mark. 22(1), 14–37 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1080/10495140903190374
Lilleker, D.G.: Interactivity and branding: public political communication as a marketing tool. J. Polit. Mark. 14(1–2), 111–128 (2015)
Lisi, M.: The professionalization of campaigns in recent democracies: the Portuguese case. Eur. J. Commun. 28(3), 259–276 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323113475463
Mantelero, A.: Personal data for decisional purposes in the age of analytics: from an individual to a collective dimension of data protection. Comput. Law Secur. Rev. 32(2), 238–255 (2016)
Mavriki, P., Karyda, M.: Using personalization technologies for political purposes: privacy implications. In: Katsikas, Sokratis K., Zorkadis, V. (eds.) e-Democracy 2017. CCIS, vol. 792, pp. 33–46. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71117-1_3
McDermott, Y.: Conceptualising the right to data protection in an era of big data. Big Data Soc. 4(1), 1–7 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716686994
Merkel, W.: Embedded and defective democracies. Democratization 11(5), 33–58 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1080/13510340412331304598
Mittelstadt, B.: From individual to group privacy in big data analytics. Philos. Technol. 30(4), 475–494 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-017-0253-7
Monroe, B.L.: The five Vs of big data political science introduction to the virtual issue on big data in political science political analysis. Polit. Anal. 21(V5), 1–9 (2013)
Mulligan, D.K., et al.: Privacy is an essentially contested concept: a multi-dimensional analytic for mapping privacy. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A: Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 374(2083), 20160118 (2016)
Nagler, J., Tucker, J.A.: Drawing inferences and testing theories with big data. PS: Polit. Sci. Polit. 48(1), 84–88 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096514001796
Narayanan, A., Huey, J., Felten, E.W.: A precautionary approach to big data privacy. In: Gutwirth, S., Leenes, R., De Hert, P. (eds.) Data Protection on the Move. LGTS, vol. 24, pp. 357–385. Springer, Dordrecht (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7376-8_13
Negrine, R., Papathanassopoulos, S.: The “Americanization” of political communication: a critique. Harv. Int. J. Press./Polit. 1(2), 45–62 (1996)
Nickerson, D.W., Rogers, T.: Political campaigns and big data. J. Econ. Perspect. 28(2), 51–73 (2014)
Nissenbaum, H.: Protecting privacy in an information age: the problem of privacy in public. Law Philos. 17(5), 559–596 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006184504201
Nulty, P., et al.: Social media and political communication in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament. Electoral. Stud. 44, 429–444 (2016)
Oates, S., Moe, W.W.: Donald Trump and the “Oxygen of Publicity”: Branding, Social Media, and Mass Media in the 2016 Presidential Primary Elections. Social Science Research Network, Rochester (2016)
Petronio, S.: Communication privacy management theory: what do we know about family privacy regulation? J. Fam. Theory Rev. 2(3), 175–196 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2589.2010.00052.x
Plasser, F.: Assessing the Americanization of Austrian politics and politicians. In: The Americanization/Westernization of Austria, pp. 235–254. Routledge (2017)
Pont-Sorribes, C., et al.: Is there Americanization in catalan election campaigns? A decade of electoral communication strategies from postmodernist perspective. Am. Behav. Sci. 62, 375–390 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764217707625
Raymond, Nathaniel A.: Beyond “do no harm” and individual consent: reckoning with the emerging ethical challenges of civil society’s use of data. In: Taylor, L., Floridi, L., van der Sloot, B. (eds.) Group Privacy. PSS, vol. 126, pp. 67–82. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46608-8_4
Regan, P.M.: Legislating Privacy: Technology, Social Values, and Public Policy. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill (1995)
Ruppert, E., et al.: Data politics. Big Data Soc. 4(2), 1–7 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951717717749
Schäfer, M.T., Van Es, K.: The Datafied Society: Studying Culture Through Data. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam (2017)
Shah, D.V., et al.: Big data, digital media, and computational social science: possibilities and perils. ANNALS Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 659(1), 6–13 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716215572084
Sivarajah, U., et al.: Critical analysis of big data challenges and analytical methods. J. Bus. Res. 70, 263–286 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.001
Solove, D.J.: A Taxonomy of Privacy. Social Science Research Network, Rochester (2005)
Solove, D.J.: Introduction: privacy self-management and the consent dilemma. Harv. L. Rev. 126, 1880 (2012)
Solove, D.J.: Reconstructing electronic surveillance law. Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 72, 1264 (2003)
Soria-Comas, J., Domingo-Ferrer, J.: Big data privacy: challenges to privacy principles and models. Data Sci. Eng. 1(1), 21–28 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41019-015-0001-x
Speed, R., et al.: Human branding in political marketing: applying contemporary branding thought to political parties and their leaders. J. Polit. Mark. 14(1–2), 129–151 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2014.990833
Stieglitz, S., et al.: Social media analytics – challenges in topic discovery, data collection, and data preparation. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 39, 156–168 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.12.002
Taylor, L.: Safety in numbers? Group privacy and big data analytics in the developing world. In: Taylor, L., Floridi, L., van der Sloot, B. (eds.) Group Privacy. PSS, vol. 126, pp. 13–36. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46608-8_2
Tene, O., Polonetsky, J.: Big data for all: privacy and user control in the age of analytics. Nw. J. Tech. Intell. Prop. 11, xxvii (2012)
Toch, E., Birman, Y.: Towards behavioral privacy: how to understand AI’s privacy threats in ubiquitous computing. In: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM International Joint Conference and 2018 International Symposium on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Wearable Computers, pp. 931–936. ACM, New York (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3267305.3274155
Tufekci, Z.: Engineering the public: big data, surveillance and computational politics. First Monday 19, 7 (2014)
Voice, P.: Privacy and democracy. S. Afr. J. Philos. 35(3), 272–280 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2016.1204843
Westin, A.F.: Privacy and Freedom, p. 7. Atheneum, New York (1967)
Westin, A.F.: Social and political dimensions of privacy. J. Soc. Issues 59(2), 431–453 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.00072
Winter, J.: Algorithmic discrimination: big data analytics and the future of the internet. In: Winter, J., Ono, R. (eds.) The Future Internet. PAIT, vol. 17, pp. 125–140. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22994-2_8
Yu, S.: Big privacy: challenges and opportunities of privacy study in the age of big data. IEEE Access 4, 2751–2763 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2016.2577036
Zarsky, T.: Privacy and Manipulation in the Digital Age. Social Science Research Network, Rochester (2019)
Zuiderveen Borgesius, F., et al.: Online Political Microtargeting: Promises and Threats for Democracy. Social Science Research Network, Rochester (2018)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mavriki, P., Karyda, M. (2020). Big Data Analytics: From Threatening Privacy to Challenging Democracy. In: Katsikas, S., Zorkadis, V. (eds) E-Democracy – Safeguarding Democracy and Human Rights in the Digital Age. e-Democracy 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1111. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37545-4_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37545-4_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-37544-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-37545-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)