I might write to all my local electoral representatives and, separately, their political parties with a subject access request (if I can be bothered).

Here are my unvarnished thoughts on the Sinn Fein database story.

1) This is the dumbest story I can remember.

If there are issues with the collection and processing of political opinion data under data protection law (and I think there are) then those problems are systematic across the political spectrum.

Now you might argue (with some justification) that the limits on political opinion data processing in the GDPR were drafted without a multi-seat proportional representation by way of STV in mind.

That’s a grand argument, but it doesn’t change what the law says.

Storing personal data, provided it is stored securely, anywhere in the EU is an equally valid choice from a legal POV.

Honestly, that particular dead smelt is just exhausting.

Sinn Féin’s national database is a function of its stronger central control over local candidates but perhaps more importantly is possible because it is not a party with a history of internal rivalry within constituents between multiple SF candidates.

If you’re sitting in FF or FG HQ, good luck persuading a Willie O’Dea or a Michael Ring to send you a copy of their hard built local knowledge graph of voter intentions, voting history etc so it can be shared with their same-party constituency rival.

Now, national or local, if a database of voting intentions and opinions is discovered to be illegal to hold, that’s surely going to be one of Irish politics’ more spectacular own goals in forcing to the fore as an issue.

This is why I really think it is a dumb story.

Here’s what I don’t think is dumb.

We need careful legislation to regulate political advertising on Facebook. Currently there is nothing to stop international actors to seek to interfere in our democracy by targeted advertising on Facebook.

We are still climbing the crest of a global misinformation wave, again largely driven by Facebook.

How to address that without creating a political speech police is a wickedly hard problem.

Whether the speech is stored in Frankfurt or Foxrock, the problem will remain the same.

So, if you are worried about data protection and the electoral register take a long read of @daraghobrien and his latest in a decade long sequence of analysis. https://castlebridge.ie/2021/04/20/the-politics-of-data/

And if you are worried about the robustness of our democracy in the face of political misinformation, propaganda and dark money follow @LizCarolan and read everything she’s written from her timeline.

And if you want to see a political and media class that lives inside a gunpowder store made of citizen data toss matches at each other, look I guess you’re spoiled for choice for that one.

Finally, I was asked to comment by @Jennifer_Bray in this Irish Times piece, and was pleased when I found my quotes surrounded by better words from other people.

If you want to see the a report on these systemic issues addressed in print, start here https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/jennifer-bray-what-s-the-story-with-sinn-f%C3%A9in-s-voter-database-1.4538735?mode=amp