Slog
News & ArtsMonday, October 15, 2012
2012 / News Today in the Surveillance State: Obama and Romney Already Know All About You
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 9:14 AM
This was inevitable. The era of blackmailing the entire electorate is here!
Strategists affiliated with the campaigns of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney say they have access to information about the personal lives of voters at a scale never before imagined. And they are using that data to try to influence voting habits - in effect, to train voters to go to the polls through subtle cues, rewards and threats in a manner akin to the marketing efforts of credit card companies and big-box retailers.
In the weeks before election day, millions of voters will hear from callers with surprisingly detailed knowledge of their lives. These callers - friends of friends or long-lost work colleagues - will identify themselves as volunteers for the campaigns or independent political groups.
The callers will be guided by scripts and call lists compiled by people - or computers - with access to details like whether voters may have visited pornography websites, have homes in foreclosure, are more prone to drink Michelob Ultra than Corona, or have gay friends or enjoy expensive vacations...
The campaigns know about your shopping patterns, gambling habits, dating preferences, financial status, whether you'd be more swayed to vote by a phone call from a cousin or a friend, and much more. According to the story, the campaigns have paid over $13 million to companies such as Acxiom, Experian, and Equifax—"which are currently subjects of congressional scrutiny over privacy concerns"—to data-mine potential voters.
This should slam home the notion of how much data is already out there, collected, categorized, and available to businesses with enough money or government agencies with enough legal leverage.
Both parties are also planning to use Facebook and email for public shaming campaigns against people who have not voted frequently in the past. That's not the most pernicious thing in the world—even if it is a form of mild blackmail—but take it to its logical extension ("do what we say or we'll post your most embarrassing habits on Facebook") and it gets a little creepy. And the candidates know it:
Even as campaigns embrace this ability to know so much more about voters, they recognize the risks associated with intruding into the lives of people who have long expected that the privacy of the voting booth extends to their homes. "You don't want your analytical efforts to be obvious because voters get creeped out," said a Romney campaign official. "A lot of what we're doing is behind the scenes."
Being seen—being famous—used to be considered a privilege. Now Banksy's old formulation, flipping Andy Warhol, sounds truer: "In the future, everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes." And that will be the privileged state.
1
If this is true, astroturfers, such as Gay for Romney, should have a lot better information than they seem to be working with on Slog.
2
Of course, a lot of the information these firms have has been knowingly provided. I recommend that everyone practice saying "I am not interested in participating in this survey, please take me off your calling list." to every telemarketer or polling firm.
Of course, they never stop calling so be prepared to say this a lot. (And hang up on automated polls.)
Of course, they never stop calling so be prepared to say this a lot. (And hang up on automated polls.)
3
The Corporate Fascist State and Your Genitals --- or why foreign corporations can seize your private property!
TransCanada has now officially seized American private property through eminent domain; that is, a foreign corporation “legally” exercises the right of the non-sovereign American local government to seize private American property.
This isn’t the first case of this happening, simply the most recent and publicized instance.
How can this be, you may well ask? Let’s examine the carefully designed steps, from the Clinton-Bush-Obama administrations which brought us to this point.
During Clinton’s administration, the US government signed the WTO Financial Services Agreement, according economic obeisance to those who wield transnational capital control.
During the Bush administration, the Supreme Court’s decision privatized eminent domain (the case in 2005 (the case in Connecticut involving the developer, working for Pfizer, who razed a neighborhood for a Pfizer corporate site, only to abandon it for a cheaper site in another state after destroying an entire neighborhood). By privatizing, or corporatizing, eminent domain, they allowed for a corporate entity anywhere on the planet to seize private property, in accordance with the WTO Financial Services Agreement.
Also during the Bush administration, the bankruptcy bill was passed in 2007, exempting the rich and super-rich, while dictating that students must pay off their usurious loans, without recourse to full bankruptcy protections, which also applied to individual households who defaulted on their mortgages.
A most important amendment was attached to that bankruptcy legislation, giving first right and preference to any and all assets of those who declared bankruptcy or were in default to bond holders, i.e., banks, private equity firms, hedge funds and derivatives dealers. (Therefore, if the bondholder should be a foreign entity, lots of luck, fella, and that applies to seizure of property for unpaid credit card charges as well.)
Those three major steps (certainly there were smaller ones along the way) allow for the existing situation today.
And what of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?
From Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now show on 10/15/12:
DARYL HANNAH: Right, the southern leg of the Keystone XL was fast-tracked, but it was sort of done under cover, because from then on the Keystone XL got very little press, and most people just assumed that the decision had been postponed until after some environmental review and, of course, after the elections. But you have to remember that both the president and the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, have had TransCanada’s chief lobbyist running a high part of their campaign efforts. You know, the director of President Obama’s campaign used to be TransCanada’s chief lobbyist, and Hillary Clinton’s deputy campaign director (Paul Elliott, added by sgt_doom) is now their chief lobbyist. So there’s a very—a very comfortable relationship. So, very few people have any doubt that the whole pipeline was going to be approved. And I think it’s important that we all stand up for our natural living systems, our life support systems, and get this back in the conversation so people know that it’s happening, so our rights aren’t trampled.
A vote for Romney is suicidally psychotic, and a vote for Obama is a wasted vote.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/12/o…
Recommended reading:
The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind, by David Cay Johnson
Retirement Heist, by Ellen E. Schultz
Treasure Islands, by Nicholas Shaxson
Wall Street Capitalism: The Theory of the Bondholder Class, by E. Ray Canterbery
Battling Wall Street: the Kennedy presidency, by Donald Gibson
Sources:
http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2012/10/…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._Cit…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_…
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-FCIC/pd…
[Sidebar: These steps aren’t discrete events --- they don’t just happen! Dick Cheney’s Godson, DJ Gribbin IV, didn’t just happen to work for Koch Industries --- George W. Bush’s sister wasn’t just coincidentally Mrs. Koch!
Cheney’s Godson isn’t just coincidentally involved in the national promotion of toll roads --- not only do toll roads further privatization and austerity, but they all have surveillance cams, which furthers the national surveillance agenda.
It’s not just a coincidence that Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle have long been affiliated with David Rockefeller, nor that Peter G. Peterson is Rockefeller’s protégé.
It wasn’t a coincidence that Chris Mellon (a Mellon family member) “leaked” Iran’s nuclear program when he was at DoD --- just as it wasn’t a coincidence when Halliburton, when Cheney was their CEO, urged the Iranian government to exploit their second most abundant resource, radium, and develop a nuclear industry.
Few Americans have any idea that Mitt Romney, through Bain Capital’s ownership of the G.R.I.D. (the Regulatory Data Corp’s Global Regulatory Information Database), has enormous access to private and confidential data, which endows him with incredible, behind-the-scenes, power.]
More...
TransCanada has now officially seized American private property through eminent domain; that is, a foreign corporation “legally” exercises the right of the non-sovereign American local government to seize private American property.
This isn’t the first case of this happening, simply the most recent and publicized instance.
How can this be, you may well ask? Let’s examine the carefully designed steps, from the Clinton-Bush-Obama administrations which brought us to this point.
During Clinton’s administration, the US government signed the WTO Financial Services Agreement, according economic obeisance to those who wield transnational capital control.
During the Bush administration, the Supreme Court’s decision privatized eminent domain (the case in 2005 (the case in Connecticut involving the developer, working for Pfizer, who razed a neighborhood for a Pfizer corporate site, only to abandon it for a cheaper site in another state after destroying an entire neighborhood). By privatizing, or corporatizing, eminent domain, they allowed for a corporate entity anywhere on the planet to seize private property, in accordance with the WTO Financial Services Agreement.
Also during the Bush administration, the bankruptcy bill was passed in 2007, exempting the rich and super-rich, while dictating that students must pay off their usurious loans, without recourse to full bankruptcy protections, which also applied to individual households who defaulted on their mortgages.
A most important amendment was attached to that bankruptcy legislation, giving first right and preference to any and all assets of those who declared bankruptcy or were in default to bond holders, i.e., banks, private equity firms, hedge funds and derivatives dealers. (Therefore, if the bondholder should be a foreign entity, lots of luck, fella, and that applies to seizure of property for unpaid credit card charges as well.)
Those three major steps (certainly there were smaller ones along the way) allow for the existing situation today.
And what of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?
From Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now show on 10/15/12:
DARYL HANNAH: Right, the southern leg of the Keystone XL was fast-tracked, but it was sort of done under cover, because from then on the Keystone XL got very little press, and most people just assumed that the decision had been postponed until after some environmental review and, of course, after the elections. But you have to remember that both the president and the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, have had TransCanada’s chief lobbyist running a high part of their campaign efforts. You know, the director of President Obama’s campaign used to be TransCanada’s chief lobbyist, and Hillary Clinton’s deputy campaign director (Paul Elliott, added by sgt_doom) is now their chief lobbyist. So there’s a very—a very comfortable relationship. So, very few people have any doubt that the whole pipeline was going to be approved. And I think it’s important that we all stand up for our natural living systems, our life support systems, and get this back in the conversation so people know that it’s happening, so our rights aren’t trampled.
A vote for Romney is suicidally psychotic, and a vote for Obama is a wasted vote.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/12/o…
Recommended reading:
The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind, by David Cay Johnson
Retirement Heist, by Ellen E. Schultz
Treasure Islands, by Nicholas Shaxson
Wall Street Capitalism: The Theory of the Bondholder Class, by E. Ray Canterbery
Battling Wall Street: the Kennedy presidency, by Donald Gibson
Sources:
http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2012/10/…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._Cit…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_…
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-FCIC/pd…
[Sidebar: These steps aren’t discrete events --- they don’t just happen! Dick Cheney’s Godson, DJ Gribbin IV, didn’t just happen to work for Koch Industries --- George W. Bush’s sister wasn’t just coincidentally Mrs. Koch!
Cheney’s Godson isn’t just coincidentally involved in the national promotion of toll roads --- not only do toll roads further privatization and austerity, but they all have surveillance cams, which furthers the national surveillance agenda.
It’s not just a coincidence that Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle have long been affiliated with David Rockefeller, nor that Peter G. Peterson is Rockefeller’s protégé.
It wasn’t a coincidence that Chris Mellon (a Mellon family member) “leaked” Iran’s nuclear program when he was at DoD --- just as it wasn’t a coincidence when Halliburton, when Cheney was their CEO, urged the Iranian government to exploit their second most abundant resource, radium, and develop a nuclear industry.
Few Americans have any idea that Mitt Romney, through Bain Capital’s ownership of the G.R.I.D. (the Regulatory Data Corp’s Global Regulatory Information Database), has enormous access to private and confidential data, which endows him with incredible, behind-the-scenes, power.]
4
Is this actually happening to anyone?
Have you received any calls from people you worked with in the past who are trying to get you to vote for (or against) X?
It seems VERY creepy to me.
Have you received any calls from people you worked with in the past who are trying to get you to vote for (or against) X?
It seems VERY creepy to me.
5
No, and I could only find one story about a Congressional hearing in July. I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of it is voluntarily provided, as @2 wrote.
6
Isn’t it a good thing for candidates to know their constituents?
I think if they really KNEW more about how their constituents really live (instead of what their party line says about how their constituents live) they might be forced by reality (instead of their perceptions) to moderate their positions. Fact is, there are very few pure liberals or pure conservatives. Most people negotiate those extreme positions on a daily basis in their daily life.
For example: Porn. The true believers that write the Liberal platform might be surprised to learn how many of their constituents (men and women) enjoy a little misogynist objectification on a regular basis while true believers that write the Conservative platform might be surprised to learn how many of their constituents (men and women) enjoy a little deviant behavior on a regular basis.
I think if they really KNEW more about how their constituents really live (instead of what their party line says about how their constituents live) they might be forced by reality (instead of their perceptions) to moderate their positions. Fact is, there are very few pure liberals or pure conservatives. Most people negotiate those extreme positions on a daily basis in their daily life.
For example: Porn. The true believers that write the Liberal platform might be surprised to learn how many of their constituents (men and women) enjoy a little misogynist objectification on a regular basis while true believers that write the Conservative platform might be surprised to learn how many of their constituents (men and women) enjoy a little deviant behavior on a regular basis.
7
@6, why should the government be in people's bedrooms? In the upteenth example of hypocrisy, a story over the weekend is that RNC/Tea Party "family values" Congressman had sex with his patient (he was a doctor), and then insisted (on a call he recorded) she have an abortion, although he was too busy to attend and now runs on an anti-abortion (for everyone else) platform.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15…
8
@1,
Is astroturfing really about changing people's minds though? I've always taken it as an attempt to undermine the morale of the other side, to try to make us feel like our candidate can't win so we might as well give up.
Is astroturfing really about changing people's minds though? I've always taken it as an attempt to undermine the morale of the other side, to try to make us feel like our candidate can't win so we might as well give up.
9
so, do you think political campaigns should be run absent of information? also, this is overstatement by consultants trying to drum up business. beer preference has no bearing on vote choice.
10
"In the future, the presidential couple will be hot as fuck and will release a sex tape as part of their campaign."
-Andy Warhol
-Andy Warhol
11
Hm, Glenn Greenwald is on a panel discussing civil liberties today at UW. No mention of this on Slog?
12
Thank god we get to mail in our ballots early so they'll stop harassing us.
Oh, btw, someone should tell the GOP that I'm not a Conservative Gay Hispanic millionaire.
Accurate my ...
Oh, btw, someone should tell the GOP that I'm not a Conservative Gay Hispanic millionaire.
Accurate my ...
13
A couple of weeks ago an Obama campaign canvasser came to my door.
For a moment I thought I might tell her the reasons I won't be voting Obama again (failure to take on the institutions and practices that created the economic crisis, further erosion of civil liberties, movement toward neoliberalism, etc.), and will instead vote for Rocky Anderson or Jill Stein. But she was an older woman, and was volunteering her time and energy to something she believed in, so I decided not to give her a hard time and instead to just shine her on as she told me about Obama and Inslee.
But then she asked "Are you [and said my real name]?" I was taken aback. Why is this stranger coming to my door and asking my identity? I asked why she wanted know. She said she wanted to check my name off a list she had, to note that she had spoken to me. I saw that she had several pages of printed names and addresses. I asked where she had gotten this information. She said it was from publicly available voter records, and that she was visiting people "who have indicated a likelihood of voting for Obama".
I was immediately very uncomfortable. Is this information really publicly available? Is it legal to use these names, addresses, and votes for the purpose of political persuasion? Just think of the potential for harassment and intimidation this creates.
I declined to identify myself to this woman and told her how uncomfortable I was with the question. This is just one more reason I won't be casting another vote for Obama.
More...
For a moment I thought I might tell her the reasons I won't be voting Obama again (failure to take on the institutions and practices that created the economic crisis, further erosion of civil liberties, movement toward neoliberalism, etc.), and will instead vote for Rocky Anderson or Jill Stein. But she was an older woman, and was volunteering her time and energy to something she believed in, so I decided not to give her a hard time and instead to just shine her on as she told me about Obama and Inslee.
But then she asked "Are you [and said my real name]?" I was taken aback. Why is this stranger coming to my door and asking my identity? I asked why she wanted know. She said she wanted to check my name off a list she had, to note that she had spoken to me. I saw that she had several pages of printed names and addresses. I asked where she had gotten this information. She said it was from publicly available voter records, and that she was visiting people "who have indicated a likelihood of voting for Obama".
I was immediately very uncomfortable. Is this information really publicly available? Is it legal to use these names, addresses, and votes for the purpose of political persuasion? Just think of the potential for harassment and intimidation this creates.
I declined to identify myself to this woman and told her how uncomfortable I was with the question. This is just one more reason I won't be casting another vote for Obama.
14
More coverage of this issue:
Stalk the Vote
Mother Jones
By Tim Murphy, September/October 2012 Issue
How Obama for America gets to know Jane Q. Voter.
Inside the Obama Campaign's Hard Drive
Mother Jones
By Tim Murphy, September/October 2012 Issue
Obama's tech guru and his microtargeting whiz kids are building a new kind of Chicago machine. Can they help the president hold on to the Oval Office?
Vote Stalkers: Obama, Romney Campaigns Mine Trove of Voters’ Online Data to Win 2012 Election
video segment on Democracy Now! 10-15-2012
Campaigns Mine Personal Lives to Get Out Vote
New York Times
By Charles Duhigg, 10-13-2012
Stalk the Vote
Mother Jones
By Tim Murphy, September/October 2012 Issue
How Obama for America gets to know Jane Q. Voter.
Inside the Obama Campaign's Hard Drive
Mother Jones
By Tim Murphy, September/October 2012 Issue
Obama's tech guru and his microtargeting whiz kids are building a new kind of Chicago machine. Can they help the president hold on to the Oval Office?
Vote Stalkers: Obama, Romney Campaigns Mine Trove of Voters’ Online Data to Win 2012 Election
video segment on Democracy Now! 10-15-2012
Campaigns Mine Personal Lives to Get Out Vote
New York Times
By Charles Duhigg, 10-13-2012
15
According to most of the people commenting on the Reddit Troll thread, everything everyone ever does online - especially the legal stuff (LOL!) - should be readily available to anyone who disagrees with you or has been offended, in order to facilitate public shaming, job loss, and other consequences for "wrong" behavior online.
So political campaigns having access to that same information shouldn't be creepy or a problem at all - right?
David Brin wrote a great book about all of these interlocking issues, the inevitable outcomes and likely consequences about 14 years ago called "The Transparent Society".
So political campaigns having access to that same information shouldn't be creepy or a problem at all - right?
David Brin wrote a great book about all of these interlocking issues, the inevitable outcomes and likely consequences about 14 years ago called "The Transparent Society".
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