Have you seen a targeted political ad?
Who’s Watching You?
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How companies have assembled political profiles for millions of Internet users ProPublica
8 North Coast Journal • Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012 • northcoastjournal.com
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credit reporting company. Datalogix, a company that 201 works with Facebook to track users’ buying patterns, is also involved. (Marketing materials and comment from the seven companies are also online.) CampaignGrid and a few, similar firms have been profiled for their innovative approaches. Yet the scale of the targeting and the number of companies involved has received little notice. Few of the companies involved in the targeting talk about it publicly. But CampaignGrid, which works with Republicans, and a similar, Democratic firm, Precision Network, told ProPublica they have political information on 150 million American Internet users, or roughly 80 percent of the nation’s registered voters. The information — stripped of your name or address — is connected to your computer via a cookie. Targeting firms say replacing your name with an ID number keeps the process anonymous and protects users’ privacy. But privacy experts say that assembling information about Internet users’ political behavior can be problematic even if voters’ names aren’t attached. “A lot of people would consider their political identity more private than lots of information,” said William McGeveran, a data privacy expert at the University of Minnesota Law School. “We make more rules about medical privacy. We make more rules about financial privacy. So if you think private political beliefs are in that category, maybe you’re concerned about having them treated like your favorite brand of toothpaste.” Google has stayed away from this kind of targeting. It classifies political beliefs as “sensitive personal information,” in the same category as medical information and religious beliefs. But other big players have embraced the “political cookie,” as one company branded it.
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f you’re a registered voter and surf the web, one of the sites you visit has almost certainly placed a tiny piece of data on your computer flagging your political preferences. That piece of data, called a cookie, marks you as a Democrat or Republican, when you last voted, and what contributions you’ve made. It also can include factors like your estimated income, what you do for a living and what you’ve bought at the local mall. Across the country, companies are using cookies to tailor the political ads you see online. One of the firms is CampaignGrid, which boasted in a recent slideshow, “Internet Users are No Longer Anonymous.” The slideshow includes an image of the famous New Yorker cartoon from 1993: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Next to it, CampaignGrid lists what it can now know about an Internet user: “Lives in Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional District, 19002 zip code, Registered primary voting Republican, High net worth household, Age 50-54, Teenagers in the home, Technology professional, Interested in politics, Shopping for a car, Planning a vacation in Puerto Rico.” The slideshow was online until last week, when the company removed it after we asked for comment. (A link to full slideshow is online.) Rich Masterson, CampaignGrid’s chairman, wrote in an email that the slideshow was posted in error: “It was an unapproved version of a sales deck that was posted by an intern who no longer works for the company.” CampaignGrid does indeed collect 18 different “attributes” for every voter, Masterson told ProPublica, including age, gender, political donations and more. Campaigns use this data to tailor the online ads you see. Online targeting has taken off this campaign season. ProPublica has identified seven companies that advertise the ability to help campaigns target specific voters online. Among them is Experian, the
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By Lois Beckett
As we reported the ability — I think in June, Yahoo and our society very much Microsoft sell access values the ability — to your registration to efficiently reach a information for desired audience with a elp ProPublica find out how polipolitical targeting. political message.” ticians are targeting you online. That’s one way CamNot everyone seems 1. If you spot a small blue paignGrid and other to agree. A recent triangle icon on any online political companies find you study from the Univerad, or the words “Ad Choices,” take a online. Political tarsity of Pennsylvania’s screenshot of the ad. geting firms say they Annenberg School 2. Then click on the blue triangle also work with other found that 86 percent or the words “Ad Choices” to find out websites, but would of surveyed adults did which company showed you the ad. not name them. not want “political Take a screenshot of that, too. While camadvertising tailored to 3. Email the screenshots to us at paigns and the your interests,” and targeting2012@propublica.org. Please firms working that 77 percent would include the full URL of the page where with them can not return to a website you saw the ad. buy reams of if they knew it “was If the ad asks you to “learn more,” data about votsharing information visit a website, donate, or sign a ers, voters have about me with political petition, please send us a screenshot been left mostly in advertisers.” of that site or petition, as well. (The the dark. While targeting page where the ad sends you may also Many online ad firms promise a wealth be targeted to what advertisers know companies mark of individual detail, about you.) targeted ads with a it’s hard to know how Not sure how to take a screenshot? small blue trimuch information most We have links online to instructions if angle symbol, or the campaigns are actually you’re using a PC, using a Mac, or using phrase “Ad Choices,” using. a smartphone. and offer surfers a “The more third — ProPublica chance to opt out. party data providers But even if web usyou use, the smaller the ers know what the universe of people who triangle means, they get no information you can reach becomes,” CampaignGrid’s about how or why they were targeted. Masterson said. “Republican women 25-34 “Consumers don’t really understand who drive SUVs and have American Express what’s going on and haven’t given their cards, and go to the theater once a month permission,” says Joseph Turow, a digital — that might be four people.” marketing and privacy expert at the UniOne place online voter targeting has versity of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School been used successfully is in the state for Communication. senate primary race of Morgan McGarThere are few legal regulations governvey, a Kentucky Democrat who faced off ing how online targeting works, or what against three other Democratic candinotification consumers must receive. dates this May. Online advertising experts point out With four liberal candidates competing that individual voting records are public for a liberal district, McGarvey told Proinformation and have long been used to Publica, he needed to convince the small target voters through direct mail. And number of voters who would turn out in targeting companies say they are offering a the primary that they should vote for him. valuable service. Instead of seeing random His campaign worked with Precision ads, users get to see ads from candidates Network to show online McGarvey ads they might actually want to support. to local voters under 35, and to female “We empower voters,” Jeff Dittus, coDemocrats who had voted in at least three founder of Campaign Grid and now head of of the past five primary elections. (Two of Audience Partners, wrote in an email. “We his challengers were women.) give voters information that is meaningful “When every dollar counts, when literto them and helps them make choices.” ally every vote counts, you have to be Stuart Ingis, a lawyer for the Digital Admore targeted,” he said. vertising Alliance, an industry group, said “I do think it helped us win.” that voter file targeting is a First AmendMcGarvey is now running unopposed in ment issue, and that targeting should be the November election. l protected as part of political speech. “These technologies provide a method Lois Beckett wrote this article for for politicians inexpensively to improve ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit our democracy,” he said. “I would say that newsroom that produces investigative the founding fathers firmly believed in journalism in the public interest.
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