The sale of 'edited' electoral registers in Scotland: Implications for Citizenship, Privacy and Data Protection

Citation

Leleux C & Webster CWR (2014) The sale of 'edited' electoral registers in Scotland: Implications for Citizenship, Privacy and Data Protection. Surveillance Studies Network, 6th Biennial Conference: 'Ambiguities and Asymmetries', Barcelona, Spain, 24.04.2014-26.04.2014. http://www.ssn2014.net/?page_id=1526

Abstract
The proposed paper provides an assessment of the growing phenomenon in Scotland and the United Kingdom of the sale of ‘edited' electoral registers to third parties, and reflects on the implications which this has for state and citizen relations, privacy and data protection. New legislation was introduced in Scotland in 2002 (Representation of the People (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2002) which requires Electoral Registration Officers to compile a separate ‘edited' electoral register for those electors who do not wish their names included in a register which could then be sold to third parties. Comparison is made with the role of data aggregators in the United States, which according to Bennett (2013), are selling profiling information to political parties farmed from electoral registers for the targeting and canvassing of electors. Drawing upon the results of a survey of Electoral Registration Officers in Scotland, information will be provided on the sales of ‘edited' registers since 2002 including approximate revenues and importantly the categories of organisations involved. Calls for the sale of ‘edited' registers to be abolished have been raised by various actors, including the UK Information Commissioner, The Electoral Commission, and the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee of the UK Parliament. Contrastingly, the UK Parliament and Constitution Centre (2012) advised that support for the retention of the practice has been voiced by marketing companies, credit reference agencies and debt collection companies. Recently, a report by Big Brother Watch (September, 2013), raised concerns about the possible lack of awareness amongst electors that this practice is occurring, and that the selling of the ‘edited' registers is possibly deterring them from voting. The practice of selling ‘edited' electoral registers strikes at the heart of democracy in that the state has potentially eroded trust in citizen-state relations by allowing citizens' personal information to be sold to third parties in an unrestricted and apparently haphazard manner.

Keywords
Big data; citizenship; privacy; data protection