With midterm elections just days away, many Americans have expressed concerns about the privacy of their votes, as well as the use of data harvesting in campaigning, and the potential for Twitter bots to spread fake information. In this piece, we’ll explore the research conducted by NordVPN related to privacy concerns during the midterm elections. Let’s get started…
Voter concerns…
The NordVPN research team found that many Americans don’t believe their choice at the ballot box is private. This, the research team says, can be understood in the context of growing worries about various data-gathering practices by political campaigners and tech companies.
Although voting is anonymous, data about potential voting habits is gathered meticulously by many entities. And in that sense, many respondents expressed concerns about the ways in which this data gathering was being used in election campaigns.
Almost half (47%) of respondents agreed that stricter laws against intrusive data harvesting are needed to limit the spread of misinformation, while 46% said that enforcing legislation of this kind would make tech companies more accountable for the disinformation on their platforms.
Twitter plays an important (negative) role
Among respondents to a NordVPN survey, 70% believe that Twitter bots have significant power to influence the outcome of a U.S. election.
The reasoning behind this is linked to widespread awareness that disinformation and fake news often spread on social media platforms like Twitter. And while U.S. society may be divided along political lines, a majority of Americans (62%) do agree that voter disinformation is undermining democracy.
Moreover, most Americans (56%) agree that unchecked data collection could be exacerbating the problem, potentially through targeted ads containing misinformation.
Other findings from NordVPN’s research:
- 53% think election disinformation and misinformation will increase leading up to and during the U.S. 2022 midterm elections.
- 53% agree that election misinformation and disinformation campaigns can dissuade people from voting or even suppress the vote.
- 44% agree it would help to make commercial advertisers more accountable for the spread of any misinformation and disinformation.
How justified are voter concerns?
Since voting in the U.S. is private, one would think that voter concerns are no reason for concern. However, it is important to rethink the role of tech companies and social media sites in spreading misinformation as they’re grounded in some worrying truths. Fake news has been shared widely on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites in recent years — with some of this traffic being generated by bots.
Speaking of which, 28% of respondents to NordVPN’s survey said they are following — or have retweeted a tweet — from an account that may have been a Twitter bot. The problem is that many people will never realize that they’re engaging with, or sharing content from, a bot account.
In other words, voters should be concerned about the role of social media bots and online misinformation in any election, the 2022 U.S. midterms included.
What about data harvesting?
The other area where people are right to be concerned is data collection, which is now used by all political parties. And it’s not just them – we also have governments, marketing companies, data brokers, and other organizations engaging in this practice, all in an effort to convince people how to vote (or how to spend their money).
You can, however, do something to make it harder for all these parties to collect at least part of your data that is related to your Internet habits. A good VPN will make it much harder for anyone to track you down online, changing your virtual location and your IP address to a new one. Also, it will encrypt all traffic, making it impossible for anyone to snoop into it.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It is our belief everyone should be using a VPN — before, during, and after elections. It’s just the world we live in. And if you’re looking for a great solution, well – you can grab NordVPN. We love it, and we’re sure you’ll like it just as well. Hit the link below and take it from there.
Pros
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- 5,000+ servers in the network
- Easy to use - install it and forget it
- One license is good for up to 6 devices
- Strict zero-logs policy
- 30-day money-back guarantee
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