Democrats Invade Your Facebook!

by Joy Overbeck

They’re coming — and they’re after you! (Insert scary music here.) The Democrats are mining your Facebook information in an effort to persuade you to vote for them and donate to their cause.  If you’re one of Facebook’s 900 million users, the sly tech wizards at a Democrat activist company called NGP VAN have come up with a way to add you to the Democrat caller database, then call and email you, harassing you for money and support in these weeks ramping up to the election. And they only provide their sneaky software program to  Democrats.

The tool, called Social Organizing, was created by these activists to allow your friends and co-workers to log into Facebook and use your name, city and state to match your identity with voter records.  Believe it or not, this data mining is completely legal. Or at least legal enough for Democrat government work.

This is how it’s described on the Democrats’ Social Organizing Website:

Using Social Organizing, supporters can log into your website, match their Facebook and other friends to the VAN voter file, and then make the right contacts with the right friends, like calling persuadable friends and targeted voters, or emailing friends fitting the profile of a donor as part of a grassroots fundraising effort. Social Organizing then encourages supporters on to greater activity through game dynamics like points, achievement badges, and supporter leaderboards

And don’t we all desperately want more achievement badges?  This technology gave a big boost to Obama during the 2008 elections and can be expected to do the same in 2012.  Will your friends sell you out?

Actually, they don’t need to, because the Obama for America Phone App has an even more convenient way of invading your privacy.  Campaign workers using this app can see the names, addresses, age, and gender of anyone and everyone in a neighborhood. This is public information, which campaigns have long accessed so volunteers could walk door to door. But now workers don’t need to hassle with getting the list from the county clerk — they can just download the app and in seconds see a Google map that marks household voter affiliation with little flags.

The New York Times called the Obama App “the science-fiction dream of political operatives,” but many may find a large creep factor in a perfect stranger being able to discover in seconds if you’re a woman living alone.  To counter the Facebook invasion, you may want to check your privacy settings. And choose your friends very wisely if you don’t want them targeting you for political gain. But there’s nothing you can do about that Democrat campaign worker lurking on the corner aiming his Obama App at your house.

Joy Overbeck is a journalist and author who blogs at www.thekitchencabinet.us , www.mycoloradoview.com and at her quirky God website, www.godsayshi.org     Tweet her : @joyoverbeck1

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