Data in Elections: How Campaigns Target You Using Your Own Data
How people feel about the use of their data varies from person to person. Many individuals are okay with posting their lunch, location, or vacation with followers on their various social media platforms. However, once you tell those same people their data is being used for targeted ads, elections, or anything involving the government, they become anxious. To be frank, it is bizarre how much data reveals about an individual and how data can be used in a variety of ways. This data is not just what is put out on the internet, but accumulated information from the years that companies have collected and organized, then utilize or sell. Specifically, within political campaigns we can target people by an incredible amount of detail to make certain specific people see advertisements and posts from our candidate.
Data and using it to target voters and donors began to gain attention after Barack Obama’s campaign used it in both his 2008 and 2012 election. Obama’s campaign was known as a “Data-Driven Campaign” and was praised for his use of technology to track voter patterns and raise over $1 billion USD for his campaign in 2012. This was the first big campaign that had been open about their use of data and many campaigns have followed suit since then.
It only makes sense as technology improves and expands, it would naturally cycle into campaigns and elections. However, the amount of detail in the data is extraordinary. Some of the basic demographics we can target are political party, gender, martial status, age, ethnicity, and voting history. The more detailed categories are hobbies and interests found in the household and are narrowed down to specific topics, such as stamp collector or fiction science reader. We can narrow down individuals by their occupation industry, whether they invest their money, or if they are a dog versus cat owner.
There is not one national database for voters, though. Instead, companies gain access to state and local voter files to create a national database. Then, they layer the data from a variety of large sources to create a more detailed voter profile. This is information they pay for from online sources (potentially social media) which provide email addresses, phone numbers, cookies/IP addresses, education and employment, and consumer preferences. The voter data and surveys are used to build models that predict opinions on a candidate or on specific issues. The data and databases are then utilized within campaigns to decide who to target and how to best reach them.
One way this data is specifically used within campaigns is digital ad targeting. Advertising on large platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or any streaming services can be pricey, so everyone wants to get the most “bang for their buck”. Specifically on Facebook, a candidate may choose to target only those in their particular district or state, and certain ad campaigns may choose only one party or may target individuals labeled as independents to pull votes. Facebook allows for many layered data points and can even target the location down to a 1-mile radius. Google and YouTube have more limited targeting and can only segment based on age, gender, and postal code. These ad campaigns are less specific and may be more geared toward name recognition.
The use of personal data in politics is done under the “banner of democratic engagement” which is used to justify a variety of profiling activities. Many are questioning what can be done to stop them from using their data. One suggestion is using a data broker to allow voters to refuse the sharing of their data between a political party and third party. Supporters of this believe individuals should know how their data is being used and should be agreeing to its use. However, the data broker industry is very complex and with their being so many companies collecting data and creating profiles, it would be extremely difficult to manage and regulate.
Everyone knows online data is tracked and everyone has been seeing it happen increasingly. How often have you said or heard: “I was just talking about that to someone and then it popped up on my phone” or, “How did they know I was just looking online for that?” Data will only continue to become more prevalent in all areas of life, but politics specifically. Democrats and Republicans alike are creating and utilizing databases to gain votes and donations. Next time an advertisement pops up – political or not – you can understand how it got to your smartphone or computer… and know the ad was likely targeted to you!
Sources:
Funakoshi, M. (2020, October 12). How political campaigns use your data. Reuters. https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ELECTION/DATA-VISUAL/yxmvjjgojvr/.
Issenberg, S. (2020, April 2). How Obama's team used big data to Rally Voters. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2012/12/19/114510/how-obamas-team-used-big-data-to-rally-voters/.
Wakefield, J. (2020, November 27). Your data and how it is used to gain your vote. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54915779.
Yan, Z. (2018, April 19). How data analytics helped Obama win the 2012 US presidential election. Young Post. https://www.scmp.com/yp/learn/college-uni-life/university-programmes/article/3071524/how-data-analytics-helped-obama-win.