Advisory on Use of Personal Data for Election Campaigns

04 Jul 2020

The PDPC would like to highlight that electors' names and addresses are made available through the Registers of Electors. The Elections Department (ELD) has advised that candidates and political parties are allowed to buy a copy of the Registers of Electors and use the information to communicate with electors. However, they cannot use the information for commercial purposes. Please refer to Section 21A of the Parliamentary Elections Act and the ELD website for further information.

As such, consent is not required under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) for political parties, election candidates and their election agents to use the information in the Registers of Electors for the purpose of communicating with electors. Nevertheless, they must still comply with the data protection provisions, including taking appropriate measures to prevent unintended disclosure of the personal data when distributing election mailers. For more information, please refer to the PDPC's Advisory Guidelines on Application of PDPA to Election Activities.