Voters are being targeted in new and powerful ways
Sasha Issenberg, author of a new book, “The Victory Lab”, says the innovation
in this election cycle is that the campaigns are able to link online and offline
data. Voter-registration files have been merged with vast quantities of bought
consumer data, on top of which come bought or acquired e-mails, mobile and
landline numbers, as well as data gathered through canvassing, phone banks and
social-media pages. The campaigns are also making use of cookies, the crumbs of
data people leave behind when they browse the net. It is these that allow Mr and
Mrs Sixpack to be sent different advertising.
