Personal data and the privacy gaps of political campaigns

On this episode: Unlike for-profit organizations, campaigns are considered nonprofits and are, as a result, not as heavily scrutinized when it comes to privacy practices. What does that mean for your personal data when you visit a campaign’s website? 

Kaushal Kafle–a soon-to-be doctoral graduate from William and Mary University–and his colleagues analyzed the privacy practices of political campaigns through their research of 2,060 campaign websites from the November 2020 general election.

Kafle shares how his research found gaps in privacy practices, including overcollection of private data, failure to provide privacy disclosures, incomplete privacy disclosures when provided, and the inadvertent sharing of data through shared fundraising platforms.

Learn more about Kafle’s research: https://news.wm.edu/2024/02/07/your-personal-data-is-political-wm-computer-scientists-find-gaps-in-the-privacy-practices-of-campaign-websites/ 

Read the full paper here: https://kaushalkafle.com/assets/conference/kafle-oakland24.pdf 

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*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.