The Privacy Implications of Public Engagement

“Who said it? Why did they say it? Where do they live? How did they vote last time? What are their interests and concerns?” No, this is not from the film “The Lives of Others”, George Orwell’s “Big Brother” or even Ben Elton’s recent book “Blind Faith”. It’s the kind of questioning an elected politician and candidate in a modern democracy is expected to answer and record in the databases of their political parties’ after every contact with constituents who visit their electorate office or phone in. Political parties are the most comprehensive, aggressive direct marketers on the planet. In some democracies, they even have special laws that allow them to collect more personal information from more sources than any other civilian organisation in their society and then keep it secret from their citizens.