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We Have Root
book

We Have Root

by Bruce Schneier
September 2019
Beginner content levelBeginner
304 pages
8h 22m
English
Wiley
Content preview from We Have Root

5Elections and Voting

Candidates Won’t Hesitate to Use Manipulative Advertising to Score Votes

Originally published in the Guardian, February 4, 2016

This presidential election, prepare to be manipulated.

In politics, as in the marketplace, you are the consumer. But you only have one vote to “spend” per election, and in November you’ll almost always only have two possible candidates on which to spend it.

In every election, both of those candidates are going to pull every trick in the surveillance-driven, highly personalized internet advertising world to get you to vote for them. Or, if they think you’ll vote for the other candidate, to stay home and not vote.

In 2012, Barack Obama deftly used both social media and his own database of supporters to outmaneuver Mitt Romney, spending $47 milion on social media advertising—10 times more than his challenger. The Republicans have learned from that race, and are now just as sophisticated.

Over the past eight years, everyone has learned from the latest research in advertising manipulation. Their data can better determine your political affiliation, and level of engagement, than ever before. You’ll see personalized ads precisely targeted to your interests and opinions, based on the things you’ve written and articles you’ve read.

There are hundreds of companies that collect data about you and your behavior, online and offline, primarily for advertising purposes. Those companies categorize you by dozens of different variables and ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781119643012Purchase book