by Rick Lowe
Marc Ambinder's blog at The Week (my favourite weekly news magazine) raises some interesting points about ones personal information that is so easily available to the Obama campaign. He says:
"They know if you're registered to vote or not. They know, because of the magazines you subscribe to, what you like to do in your spare time. They know, because of their Facebook friends, the types of people you associate with. Me: I am not a volunteer for the campaign. But they know how much money I make. They know my age. They know how long it takes me to open an email they send to me. They know which words are likely to make me open an email more quickly. They know what images make me click on a link more quickly. They're able to associate my name with my public online identities and make predictions about my behavior based on keywords they mine from the data."
He points out that the Romney campaign is doing the same thing but on a "much smaller scale".
I don't mind advertisers being able to decipher my tastes etc, but when the political class has such easy reference to everything about you, it won't be long before the state will use it against you.
Are we letting the political class get away with too much? After all they make the rules to keep us under "control" all the while leaving themselves out of the laws.
We should pay attention to this. It's eerie.
By the way, the computer has figured out that Ambinder will vote for Mr. Obama.
