◼ Imagine having a friend on Facebook who matches up your privately shared data to a public voting record -- then flags you for more frequent campaign calls and contacts. - FOX (image source)
That’s exactly what the Democratic party is doing. The upcoming presidential campaigns are eager to get their hands on the treasure trove of voter data that 900 million users have voluntarily posted on Facebook. Enter Social Organizing, a new tool developed by Democratic activist group NGP VAN. Using it, your friends can log in to Facebook and tell the service about you. You can then be added to a caller database, pinged for ads and harassed during the entire election....
President Obama tapped this company, which describes itself as “the leading technology provider to Democratic and progressive campaigns and organizations” and only works with the Democratic Party, to gather voter data in 2008....
The expert advice: First, head to ◼ Facebook’s privacy controls and make sure of how much you’re sharing, and with whom. Then choose your friends wisely. In a way, this “friend” is using the relationship for political gain, and yet you might have any knowledge that this social mining is happening.
“Anyone can take information and match it with public information and sell the result to someone else,” Enderle told FoxNews.com. “It's perfectly legal and not even immoral. But those are not the friends you want.”
