Mapping Public Attitudes Towards Data-Driven Campaigning and its regulation in five advanced democracies

Recent years have seen a growing interest in Data-Driven Campaigning (DDC) practices from both academics and policymakers. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, data privacy breaches and new tools made available by social media companies have all contributed to a closer examination of the promises and pitfalls of using data in elections, including political microtargeting and voter profiling. Within this context, strikingly little is known about citizen's attitudes towards DDC, particularly the extent to which they are aware of these practices, and whether they perceive them to be problematic and in need of additional regulation. In this paper, we draw upon a cross-national survey (n=5,040) in five advanced democracies to give unprecedented insight into public attitudes towards DDC. Through examining citizens i) awareness of DDC, ii) specific concerns related to DDC and iii) the shape of regulation required to address these concerns, we detect three distinct underlying clusters which show that citizens are divided in their views towards the use of data in election campaigning. Presenting this data, we consider whether there is public consensus around DDC that warrants a universal regulatory response and whether public opinion can offer a path to tackling the perceived barriers to regulatory reform.