We’ve all been making some big choices, consciously or not, as advancing technology has transformed the real and virtual worlds. That phone in your pocket, the surveillance camera on the corner: You’ve traded away a bit of anonymity, of autonomy, for the usefulness of one, the protection of the other. […] Read more »
Your phone and TV are tracking you, and political campaigns are listening in
… Welcome to the new frontier of campaign tech — a loosely regulated world in which simply downloading a weather app or game, connecting to Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or powering up a home router can allow a data broker to monitor your movements with ease, then compile the […] Read more »
Democrats to launch new voter database with Dean at the helm
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is declaring a major victory ahead of the 2020 presidential election, with the help of one of his most well-known predecessors. Howard Dean, the one-time presidential candidate, former Vermont governor and ex-DNC chairman, is set to head a new data exchange operation that Democrats […] Read more »
Private Mossad for Hire: Inside a plot to influence American elections, starting with one small-town race
… Psy-Group was part of a new wave of private intelligence firms that recruited from the ranks of Israel’s secret services—self-described “private Mossads.” The most aggressive of these firms seemed willing to do just about anything for their clients. Psy-Group stood out from many of its rivals because it didn’t […] Read more »
The real value of Paul Manafort’s polling data
… When Paul Manafort allegedly shared “polling data” with Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a Russian businessman and former military interpreter who the FBI says has “ties to a Russian intelligence service,” many Americans may have shrugged and thought “so what?” To them, polling data is the result of simple surveys that […] Read more »
Secret campaign to use Russian-inspired tactics in 2017 Alabama election stirs anxiety for Democrats
A secret effort to influence the 2017 Senate election in Alabama used tactics inspired by Russian disinformation teams, including the creation of fake accounts to deliver misleading messages on Facebook to hundreds of thousands of voters to help elect Democrat Doug Jones in the deeply red state, according to a […] Read more »