Campaign Microtargeting: Democracy in the Age of Digital Surveillance
Campaigns have always been about how they present themselves to the world but the Internet changed everything with micro-targeting as a form of psychological science. No longer will you see one big message put out for everyone, instead, you’ll see hyper-personalized advertising based upon your data profile. Examples of this include demographic data, search history, your physical location, purchasing behavior and even personality type that can be determined through an algorithm. Cambridge Analytica exemplifies this paradigm shift. Millions of Facebook user profiles were scraped without their knowledge or permission and then Cambridge Analytica developed psychographic models to categorize them emotionally (vulnerable, fearful, aggressive etc.) and psychologically (e.g., risk-averse, or open) to develop messaging that would resonate with Trump supporters, reluctant moderate voters and disengage young voters. In other words, this was not persuasion it was data driven behavior modifica...