Abstract
<p>The study was designed to investigate the ethical implications of behaviourally targeted political advertisements on young adults in Edo State, Nigeria, within the context of the rising trend of digital platforms and personal data use in political communications. The study was guided by Privacy and Surveillance Theory, which explains how personal dataare gathered, tracked, and exploited, often against personal autonomy, privacy and democratic choice. The study used survey research as its design, and data were collected from young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 from Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Using the Taro Yamane formula, the study established a sample size of 399, from which 396 valid copies of questionnaire were retrieved for analysis using SPSS. The findings revealed that behaviourally targeted political advertisements are not effective in promoting political participation and that the influence of the advertisements on political opinions is limited. Nevertheless, there are ethical concerns associated with behaviourally targeted political advertising. The major ethical concern was related to the invasion of privacy by political actors. Therefore, the study concluded that behaviourally targeted political advertising has a weak impact on the opinions of young adults but has ethical concerns related to privacy and data misuse. It recommended data protection and digital campaign regulations and the promotion of transparent and credible political communication.</p>