Hope that doesn’t creep you out.
Not Ted Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz is under fire for his connections with a voter targeting firm that used data taken from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge.
The Cruz presidential campaign touted its collaboration with Cambridge Analytica as a sign of a cutting edge run for the White House, allowing the Texan to carefully identify likely supporters. The firm shifted allegiance to Donald Trump once the Texan dropped out of the GOP primaries.
Both campaigns pumped millions into the company, controlled by billionaire Robert Mercer — a key patron first of Cruz and then Trump in 2016.
Cruz continued work with Cambridge Analytica for six months after allegations surfaced in December 2015 that the firm was using Facebook data it had received illicitly. Recent revelations show the data harvesting was far more extensive than previously suspected, and possibly among the biggest privacy breaches in history.
“It was a grossly unethical experiment because you are playing with the psychology of an entire country… in the context of the democratic process,” whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a data scientist who worked for Cambridge Analytica, told The Guardian. “It is a full service propaganda machine.”
Texas Democrats blasted Cruz on Monday for benefiting from a “massive invasion of privacy” and demanded that Cruz explain when he knew the company had engaged in “deceitful activity.”
“Ted Cruz will stop at nothing to weasel his way into power, even if it means weaponizing stolen information to manipulate people to like him,” Texas Democratic Party deputy executive director Manny Garcia said in a press release. “Cruz’s campaign exploited personal information to create psychological profiles on millions of Americans. All to keep lining the pockets of Cruz’s billionaire super PAC donors — like Robert Mercer, who funded this propaganda machine.”
Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier declined a request for comment on Monday.
Boy, when was the last time Ted Cruz didn’t have something to say? (He has since offered a statement that puts all the blame on Cambridge.) There’s plenty more out there about Cambridge Analytica if you want to keep reading. If you’d like to ask Ted Cruz to give you your data back, you can call his office at (202) 224-5922. I look forward to seeing this subject explored in more detail in campaign ads later this year. RG Ratcliffe and the Dallas Observer have more.
The only difference between Trump and Cruz is that Cruz is much smarter than Trump. Cruz would destroy this country, would not be surprised if he is working with the Russians.
Ross, listen to what the former FBI Special Agent has to say
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/fmr-fbi-special-agent-vladimir-putin-owns-the-president-1191007299939
It is people like you that are making it easy for country to quit being a Republic. Plus a lot of so called Republicans.
Obama’s team did this in 2012. From The Guardian:
”
US elections 2012
Obama, Facebook and the power of friendship: the 2012 data election
A unified computer database that gathers and refines information on millions of potential voters is at the forefront of campaign technology – and could be the key to an Obama win
Ed Pilkington and Amanda Michel in New York
Fri 17 Feb 2012 19.29 GMT
First published on Fri 17 Feb 2012 19.29 GMT
Barack Obama
President Obama is also well on the way towards staging the world’s first billion-dollar campaign. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
Barack Obama’s re-election team are building a vast digital data operation that for the first time combines a unified database on millions of Americans with the power of Facebook to target individual voters to a degree never achieved before.
Digital analysts predict this will be the first election cycle in which Facebook could become a dominant political force. The social media giant has grown exponentially since the last presidential election, rendering it for the first time a major campaigning tool that has the potential to transform friendship into a political weapon.
Facebook is also being seen as a source of invaluable data on voters. The re-election team, Obama for America, will be inviting its supporters to log on to the campaign website via Facebook, thus allowing the campaign to access their personal data and add it to the central data store – the largest, most detailed and potentially most powerful in the history of political campaigns. If 2008 was all about social media, 2012 is destined to become the “data election”.
“Facebook is now ubiquitous,” says Dan Siroker, a former Google digital analyst who joined Obama’s campaign in 2008 and now runs his own San Francisco-based analytics consultancy, Optimizely. “Whichever candidate uses Facebook the most effectively could win the war.””
Bill, I didn’t see anything in your post from The Guardian to indicate that the Obama campaign accessed FB data by any means other than voluntary. Cambridge Analytica used stealth means to procure profile data from FB. That’s a significant difference. FWIW, I voluntarily submitted my FB profile to Aleksandr Kogan’s research group because I was curious to see what their process would conclude about my political and cultural attributes. Their results were pretty sketchy with some glaring inaccuracies, for instance identifying me as Catholic when in fact I’m a Protestant-raised atheist. Kogan did not disclose that by participating I would be allowing access to the profiles of all my FB friends.
After posting my comment above, I viewed this interview by Anderson Cooper with Kogan in which Kogan flatly states that on an individual level these methods are ineffective, which is what I noticed myself when I participated. Kogan seems to be implying that CA has been selling its clients a system which does not live up to their claims about it. http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/technology/aleksandr-kogan-interview/index.html
Nobody bats an eye when Obama, Hillary, or other elitist dems do it, but when Trump says and does the same things he seen a racist, homophobic, and coluding with the Russians. I call you out on your bullshit.
C.I.
You missed the point entirely.
C.I. you call them out for doing what same thing? Bill provided talking points that FOX has been pushing. What did the analyst that quit FOX have to say about them?
“In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration. When prime-time hosts–who have never served our country in any capacity–dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller–all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of “deep-state” machinations– I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove. To me, Fox News is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.” source https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomnamako/ralph-peters?utm_term=.ca3rWyyZA#.hydaDQQpM
What is an elitist Dem? Is it like a homophobic racist, bigoted Republican?
Even if it were true that they did the same thing, Trump and his supporters are still racist, homophobic, and colluding with the Russians. There are exceptions, I am sure that some of Trump’s supporters may not be either racist, homophobic and colluding with the Russians.
Bill, why not provide the link so that one could ascertain what was cherry picked by the persons who support a puppet of Putin to make an argument but Obama did it first.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/14/obama-digital-campaigning-dashboard
Manny,
I can’t post links here. Try this:
http ://theduran.com/bombshell-video-shows-barack-obama-campaign-director-bragging-about-exploiting-facebook-users/
(close the spaces after http.
As an FYI, C.L., who has posted here frequently, is not the same individual who’s now posting as C.I. I certainly don’t want to be associated with his/her views, and I can guaranty you he/she doesn’t want to be associated with mine.
Peace and love, Sir Richard Starkey.
@C.L.:
Drat, I thought I had turned you to the Dark Side. 🙂
@Manny, I am not a Trump fan. I voted for him in the primary because he wasn’t Ted Cruz. I did not vote for him in the General election(no, I didn’t vote for Hilary, either). Trump’s only redeeming quality is that he isn’t Hilary Clinton.
@Bill… The Force is strong in me, your Palpatine ways are having no effect.
Ross, I voted for Hillary, anyone that could not see what a mistake Trump was (is) need to open their eyes. I voted for Bush in the primaries even though he had already dropped out. He was the only decent Republican running for president.
Hillary was the subject of misinformation by the right wing crazies, that includes Fox. She was one of the most qualified and decent persons to have run for president. One had to pass all that BS that the Republicans were throwing at her. Sanders is a drain on the Democratic Party, the old fool is also responsible for Trump, of course his white privileged followers as much to blame for being blind as to what was happening. The Russians led them like the fools that they are. Of course there are exceptions to everything.
Where are those Republicans that called Hillary an enabler, why are they not going after that woman that is married to the Clown? Where is the Tea Partiers that really is not a racist organization, after all they kept hammering Obama on the deficit and sit quietly why the Russian puppet and his congressional adorers make it much worse. While that by itself is not sufficient proof it certainly adds smoke to racism adjective that I think they deserve.
By the way Hillary was the first Democrat that I have voted for since Bill Clinton’s first run. I did not vote for him the second time.
Correction I voted for John Kerry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry
I tend to support persons that have served our country during time of war.
Am I reliving the ’80’s? The Russians are coming! Great great great time for punk music.
I want some of what Manny’s drinking. I’ve voted Democrat the majority of the time, but HRC was an incredibly flawed candidate. IMHO, neither her nor DJT deserve to be Prssident of this country. Trump, maybe Rossiya, but not the US of A.
Trump colluded with Putin to ensure Putin won another term!