Gui­de­line on the pro­ce­s­sing of per­so­nal data in elec­tions and votes

The FDPIC and the Con­fe­rence of Swiss Data Pro­tec­tion Com­mis­sio­ners (pri­va­tim) have joint­ly published a gui­de on the appli­ca­ti­on of data pro­tec­tion law to the digi­tal pro­ce­s­sing of per­so­nal data in con­nec­tion with elec­tions and votes in Switz­er­land (https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/de/home/datenschutz/dokumentation/leitfaeden/Wahlen.html).

This sets out prin­ci­ples for the pro­ce­s­sing of per­so­nal data as part of the poli­ti­cal decis­i­on-making pro­cess. Accor­ding to the Swiss Data Pro­tec­tion Act (FDPA), the pro­ce­s­sing of which is sub­ject to more strin­gent requi­re­ments. Such infor­ma­ti­on is pro­ce­s­sed by means of auto­ma­ted digi­tal methods and tech­no­lo­gies for the pur­po­se of influen­cing (poli­ti­cal) opi­ni­on for­ma­ti­on in the con­text of poli­ti­cal dis­cour­se, but also incre­a­sing­ly for the actu­al con­duct of elec­tions and votes. Against the back­drop of free will for­ma­ti­on, par­ti­cu­lar importance is atta­ched to the prin­ci­ple of trans­pa­ren­cy, which is inten­ded to encou­ra­ge poli­ti­cal actors to use digi­tal instru­ments in poli­ti­cal dis­cour­se in a reco­gnizable and com­pre­hen­si­ble manner.