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Friday, August 24, 2012

2012 Romney Is Creepily Obtaining Large Amounts of Your Data

Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 12:58 PM

This is way more invasive than just sending a whole bunch of e-mails all the time:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Building upon its fundraising prowess, Mitt Romney's campaign began a secretive data-mining project this summer to trove through Americans' personal information — including their purchasing history and church attendance — to identify new and likely wealthy donors, The Associated Press has learned.

The project employs strategies similar to those the business world uses to influence the way Americans shop and think. Now they're being used to sway presidential elections. The same personal data consumers give away — often unwittingly when they swipe their credit cards or log into Facebook — is now being used by the people who might one day occupy the White House.

For Romney's data-mining project, which began as early as June, the Republican candidate quietly turned to a little-known but successful analytics firm that previously performed marketing work for a colleague tied to Bain & Co., the management-consulting firm that Romney once led.

Go read the whole story.

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Comments (11) RSS

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This isn't any more creepy than what companies do to find out who to market and send catalogs to.

They're just finding the people who've donated to conservative groups in the past (and looking at other variables that might indicate a likelihood to donate to conservative causes) and selecting those people as the best propects to mail campaign donation appeals to.

This is really nothing new. And most SLOGgers can probably rest assured that they'll be around the bottom of the list and won't get mailed anything (well, except for gay dude for romney, and seattleblues, and supreme ruler of the universe...)

Posted by Urgutha Forka on August 24, 2012 at 1:15 PM

Unless they're Hispanic Catholics. All my rels who are that are being deluged with this carp.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on August 24, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Wait. Why is his tax information so private because it tells what he gave his church, but other people's spending and church attendance free for the taking?

Posted by Matt the Engineer on August 24, 2012 at 2:11 PM

@3:

Because, at least for now, IRS records are pretty secure from this sort of data-mining.

Posted by COMTE

on August 24, 2012 at 2:13 PM

Not that creepy. Bush and Obama are listening to you phone calls and reading your e-mails (potentially).

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on August 24, 2012 at 2:31 PM

SOP for the LDS.

Posted by SPG on August 24, 2012 at 2:57 PM

Does anyone else see a Stand with Michele Bachman ad in the right column? I hope I'm not being targetted as a possible supporter of hers. I might be losing my grip on reality.

Posted by biffp on August 24, 2012 at 3:23 PM

Yea that Romney Asshole keeps sending me his bullshit. As a supporter of firearm rights I do not support the man who signed the Massotwoshits assault weapons ban, nor do I support least coasters.

Posted by Cascadian Bacon on August 24, 2012 at 4:56 PM

@8: http://masonprof.x10.mx/chan/b/src/13021…

Posted by venomlash on August 24, 2012 at 8:19 PM

Just because an article happens to include the words "Bain Capital" does not require it to be ominously bold-typed. I cannot fathom how a mutual business marketing relationship has anything to do with this article (that goes for the author of the quote as well.)

But Constant, you just hammer home your partisan hackiness with this. You waste your talent.

Posted by give me pom on August 25, 2012 at 1:04 AM

This must explain why I keep getting so many solicitations from the Rmoney campaign, the postage paid envelopes of which I fill with pennies, washers, and/or pebbles and then place in the mailbox.

Posted by jeffinfremont on August 25, 2012 at 8:35 AM