Privacy Policy
Electoral Commission Website.
The Electoral Commission was established under the Electoral Reform Act 2022. It will be independent of Government and take on several pre-existing statutory electoral functions as well as new responsibilities. These include:
- explaining to the public the subject matter of referendums
- reviewing Dail and European electoral constituencies
- reviewing local electoral area boundaries
- the registration of political parties
- to conduct research on electoral policy
- to provide information on electoral processes and encourage participation in the electoral and democratic processes
- oversight of the Electoral Register
- regulation of online political advertising
- the protection of electoral integrity against online political misinformation, disinformation or manipulative and inauthentic behaviour
- audits of electoral events
The Electoral Commission is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy statement explains how The Electoral Commission, as the Data Controller, will process the personal data provided to it in respect of the electoralcommission.ie website; how that information will be used, and what rights you may exercise in relation to your personal data.
Categories of data
The Electoral Commission processes the following personal data in respect of providing you with the service. We collect data in the following ways:
Non-personally identifiable information (that could be combined to potentially become personally identifiable information) such as:
- IP Address
- Browser Type
- Device Type
Personally identifiable information such as:
- Your name
- Email Address
- Any other information you choose to submit to us (i.e. through a contact form)
Source of the personal data
Your personal data was provided to the Electoral Commission solely by you and your computer for the purposes outlined below.
Purposes of the processing
Your IP address is used to facilitate the transmission of information to your computer. In and of itself cannot be used to uniquely identify you. Your IP address is stored via the host software and/or applications running on that software typically in logging functions to facilitate error tracing and identify security issues.
Your browser type and device type and other non-personally identifiable information (analytical data) are used to help facilitate decision making on how we can improve our services to you.
The Electoral Commission will use the information provided in order to provide the information you have requested on this site. The Electoral Commission will not process your personal data for any purpose other than that for which it was collected. The Electoral Commission reserves the right to combine non personally-identifiable information to form information that could be used to as specified in “Lawfulness of Processing”.
Profiling
The Electoral Commission will not use any personal data collected from you in respect of electoralcommission.ie for automated decision-making, or for profiling purposes.
Lawfulness of processing
The processing of your personal data is lawful under Article 6 Paragraph 1(a), electoralcommission.ie only collects personally identifiable information with your explicit consent. Explicit consent is given when accepting specific cookie categories or filling a form with information you volunteer.
The processing of your personal data is lawful under Article 6 Paragraph 1(d), electoralcommission.ie only collects personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information where processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person.
Security of your personal data
The Electoral Commission implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information from unauthorised access. However, despite these efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. In the event that your personal data is compromised as a result of a breach of security, the Electoral Commission’s Breach Management policy and procedures will be implemented.
Recipients of the data
Personal data may be exchanged with other Government Departments or other public bodies, in certain circumstances where this is provided for by law.
Cross-border Data Transfers
The Electoral Commission will not transfer personal data collected in respect of electoralcommission.ie to any country or international organisation outside the EU/EEA.
How long will your data be kept?
The Electoral Commission will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and processed.
In line with legislative and business requirements, the data retention period for your personal data, in this instance, is in line with broader Department Policy.
Your rights
The Electoral Commission fully respects your right to privacy. Your personal data will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (“Data Protection Legislation”).
If you have a query or complaint about the use of your personal information by the Electoral Commission, the Data Protection Officer is available to assist you in the first instance.
If you consider that your rights have been infringed, you have the right to complain to the Irish Data Protection Department (dataprotection.ie), and you have the right to seek a judicial remedy.
Contacting Us
If you require further information, or wish to access your personal data, please contact the Electoral Commission’s Data Protection Officer
dataprotection@electoralcommission.ie
Additional Resources:
Document Dated: 16 January 2023