The Clash between the Right to Privacy and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution during American Presidential Campaigns

Journal: Legal Research & Analysis

Publication: 2026-10-23

DOI: 10.69971/lra.4.3.2026.204

Abstract

Big Data analysis has fundamentally reshaped American presidential campaigns. At the heart of this shift is electoral microtargeting, which involves the meticulous profiling of citizens for highly customized political communications. Current study explores the complexities produced by such practices. The friction between First Amendment which protects the political expression and the right to everyone’s personal privacy. Although American courts consistently uphold broad safeguards for political discourse, the large-scale aggregating of sensitive psychographic information by campaign organizations and private data brokers operates largely outside the current disjointed and highly fragmented U.S. data privacy regime. Current research aims to highlight legal deficiencies and evaluate the degree to which the prevailing First Amendment paradigm might counterintuitively impair democratic processes trapping voters in asymmetric information bubbles. The findings underscore a pressing need for comprehensive federal statutory reforms that would reconcile the freedom to campaign with mandates for transparency and stronger data security.