Deceptive Patterns
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Third-Party Data Leaks and Dark Patterns in Finnish Political Websites

Author
Panu Puhtila, Timi Heino, Sampsa Rauti
Date
14 Jun 2024
Publisher
International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies
Focus
Privacy & Data Protection
Category
Academic Scholar

A survey on the data leaks to third parties happening in Finnish political websites indicates that 19 of the 26 analyzed websites leak potentially sensitive personal data to third parties, most often to Google and Meta.

In the modern digital age, political parties extensively use websites as platforms for communication, engagement, and fundraising. It is important to ensure that personal data is safe when visiting these websites. For example, if pages visited by the user or search terms they used leak to third parties, this data, connected to identifying information such as IP addresses, may give clues about political affiliation. In this paper, we conduct a survey on the data leaks to third parties happening in Finnish political websites.