Data protection is an often-overlooked competitive advantage that political parties aren’t considering. It can:

  • enhance your reputation,
  • increase trust with your members, supporters, and donors, and
  • improve your ability to target and engage with voters.

This post shows how to use data protection as a competitive advantage in an increasingly data-driven political landscape. Ultimately, you’ll know the actions you can take to take advantage of this opportunity.

Build trust

Political parties must increase stakeholder trust to:

  • build and maintain meaningful relationships,
  • foster cooperation, and
  • promote social stability.

Trust is fundamental to the success and legitimacy of the political process. If you prioritise data protection, you can increase trust with your members, supporters, and donors.

For instance, being transparent about collecting, processing, storing, and sharing personal information demonstrates your commitment to data protection. Furthermore, it shows that you take the privacy and security of your stakeholders’ personal information seriously.

Protect sensitive information

Political parties that take extra care to protect sensitive information, such as political views or financial information, can differentiate themselves from other parties. In addition, publicly showing that you are a trustworthy custodian of sensitive information encourages more people to join, support, or donate to your cause, especially in our increasingly data-driven world.

Improve targeting

Improving targeting is a priority for political parties as it helps effectively communicate their policies and engage with voters. If you have good data protection practices, like following the conditions under POPIA, you can target your outreach and engagement efforts more effectively. Further, by collecting and using accurate and relevant data responsibly, your party can target its messaging and outreach to specific voter groups, improving its chances of success.

Mitigate risks

Solid data protection practices can mitigate the risk of data breaches and other privacy and security incidents. For example, by implementing information security measures to protect personal information, you can avoid reputational damage and legal liability associated with data breaches.

Leverage data analytics

If you use data analytics to gain insights into your members, supporters, and voters, you can use these insights to develop better policies and strategies. However, there are special legal considerations you need to follow when using data analytics. Some considerations include applying the relevant principles, promoting data subject rights, complying with your obligations, and meeting the rules regarding profiling data subjects.

Actions you can take next

  • Discover the impact of data protection on your party by completing our impact assessment.
  • Empower yourself with practical knowledge to implement data protection in your party by joining our Data Protection Programme.
  • Enquire now to find out how we can help with your specific needs.