Title: Big data in political communication: implications for group privacy

Authors: Paola Mavriki; Maria Karyda

Addresses: Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, GR-83200, Karlovassi, Samos, Greece ' Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, GR-83200, Karlovassi, Samos, Greece

Abstract: A growing body of academic literature explores privacy implications stemming from the adoption of big data analytics technologies in the area of political marketing and communication. While academic and public discourse on privacy focuses on the individual level, this paper explores a scarcely studied issue: group privacy. We elaborate on the importance and role of group privacy showing that even when the members of a group have their data protected, there are still privacy risks concerning the group and we identify and analyse threats to group privacy stemming from the exploitation of big data for political purposes. This paper argues that the use of big data analysis technologies in a political context can have severe implications for group privacy, including (political) targeting of particular groups and biased decision making based on group behaviour. We also show that threats to group privacy may have long term implications for society, especially with regard to the impact of populist movements.

Keywords: group privacy; group targeting; political communication; big data analytics; privacy implications; political privacy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2019.103716

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2019 Vol.11 No.3/4, pp.289 - 309

Received: 30 May 2018
Accepted: 16 Sep 2018
Published online: 25 Nov 2019 *

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