Online Privacy and Political Targeting in the Context of Social Media
Users of social media such as Facebook or Instagram leave personal data traces on the Internet. They disclose personal data both actively (e.g., through public postings or sharing articles) and passively (e.g., through clicking behavior). The data traces of users can be collected, analyzed and clustered by institutions, companies or even political parties and thus used to target specific groups of users. These targeting strategies make social media an important arena for election campaigns, because political targeting allows parties to address and convince potential voters directly through their channels.
Alarmingly, most social media users are not aware of this. And the few people who do know about it say that this kind of targeted political advertising is unacceptable. Also from a scientific, legal and ethical perspective, political targeting is criticized as being an intrusion into the privacy and autonomy of users.
The intrusion into individual privacy is viewed particularly problematic by users. The overarching goal of this research project is to investigate the relation between political online microtargeting, political attitudes, knowledge, participation and privacy using the example of German parties’ Facebook advertising during the European elections in 2024.
The long-term goal of the project is to bring the user-centered variable privacy more into focus when researching the effects of political targeting. We want to achieve this both through the concrete analysis of perceived privacy and by raising awareness for research ethics discussions about the research methods required for this. For this purpose, the inclusion of different disciplines is elementary - psychological as well as societal, technical, ethical and legal aspects have to be taken into account for a comprehensive understanding.
We would like to highlight three key aspects: 1) the complexity of social media, their affordances and functionalities, 2) the study of individual privacy not only as a mediator but also as a dependent variable, 3) the understanding of ethical, legal and technical guidelines - both in terms of targeting and in terms of methods to study the effect of targeting.
With a network of international scholars, we meet regularly to discuss the project around political targeting and privacy: https://politicaltargeting.de/
In the context of the 2021 federal election, we surveyed a representative sample several times one week before and one week after the election to investigate whether and how they perceive targeting and to what extent their privacy needs have an impact on voting decisions.
In a DFG-funded project in cooperation with the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz (Dr. Simon Kruschinski and Prof. Dr. Marcus Maurer) we are investigating the European Election 2024.
Contact
Publications
Schäwel, J., Frener, R., & Trepte, S. (2021). Political Microtargeting and Online Privacy: A theoretical approach to understanding users’ privacy behaviors. Media and Communication, 9(4), 158-169. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i4.4085
Conference Talks
Börsting, J., Frener, R., & Trepte, S. (2023, May 18-20). Bedrohung der Demokratie, Bedrohung der Privatheit? Die Wahrnehmung politischen Microtargetings von Social Media Nutzer:innen während der Bundestagswahl 2021. 68th Conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK). Bremen, Germany.
Schäwel, S., Frener, R. & Trepte, S. (2022, May 26-31). Privacy and political targeting on social media in the light of the Federal Election 2021 in Germany. 72st Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA). Paris, France.
Schäwel, J., Frener, R., Müller, J., & Trepte, S. (2021, Mai). A theoretical approach to understanding social media users’ privacy experiences under the impression of political microtargeting. 71st Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA). Denver, USA, Virtual.
Invited Talks
Schäwel, J. (2021, September). Die Wahrnehmung der individuellen Online-Privatheit im Kontext des politischen Microtargetings. Eingeladene Key Note auf der Digitalen Woche, Kiel, Deutschland. [Video]
Schäwel, J., Frener, R., & Trepte, S. (2022, January). Political Microtargeting and Online Privacy: A theoretical approach to understanding users’ privacy behaviors [invited talk]. Webinar Algorithms in the Digital Society: Where Are We Heading? (Cogitatio Press). Digital conference.
