The elections of the European Parliament and the processing of personal data in the course of political campaigning: Here is what voters need to watch out for.

In the run-up of the 2024 European Parliament elections, voters need to be aware of these key points that need to be respected when political parties and campaigners process personal data in the course of electoral activities:

• Personal data revealing political opinions is a special category of personal data and its processing is generally prohibited;

• Personal data which have been made public, or otherwise been shared by voters, such as information published by voters on social media platforms, are still subject to, and protected, by the data protection legislation: and

• Political parties and campaigners must inform voters in a transparent manner how their data are being processed.

EDPB Video: https://twitter.com/EU_EDPB/status/1783043197478003162

The IDPC remains committed to monitor and, if necessary, enforce the application of the data protection legislation in the context of elections and political campaigns, particularly, to ensure that political parties and campaigners are complying with the data protection principles, such as transparency, purpose limitation, proportionality, and security, as well as the exercise of the data subject rights.

For more information, you may access the “Guidelines on the processing of personal data for political campaigning purposes” published by the IDPC and the Statement 2/2019 on the use of personal data in the course of political campaigns issued by the EDPB.

Date : 30 April 2024