An alarming article from the Associated Press explains how Ted Cruz has moved his campaign from direct cyber contact to data-mining and spyware within the contacts on phones and social media of Ted Cruz supporters.Posted on 02/11/2016 5:17:49 PM PST by smoothsailing
February 11, 2016
by sundance
An alarming article from the Associated Press explains how Ted Cruz has moved his campaign from direct cyber contact to data-mining and spyware within the contacts on phones and social media of Ted Cruz supporters.
According to the Associated Press outline the Cruz campaign has launched an app which targets the “friends” list of Facebook supporters of Ted Cruz, and extracts their information for use:
[…] The Cruz app prompts supporters to register using their Facebook logins, giving the campaign access to personal information such as name, age range, gender, location and photograph, plus lists of friends and relatives. Those without a Facebook account must either provide an email address or phone number to use the app. (link)
But the Cruz campaign doesn’t limit themselves to just social media. According to the media report the campaign is also retrieving, extracting and targeting those names and phone numbers within the supporters cell phone:
[…] The Cruz app separately urges users to let it download their phone contacts, giving the campaign a trove of phone numbers and personal email addresses. The campaign says that by using its app, “You hereby give your express consent to access your contact list.”
[…] Cruz’s app also transmits to the campaign each user’s physical location whenever the app is active, unless a user declines to allow it. The campaign said it does this “so that we can connect you to other Cruz Crew users based on your particular geographic location.”
In essence if you have a family member, friend or colleague, who is supporting Ted Cruz, the campaign now has access to your personal information for campaign targeting.
This is a remarkable level of intrusion of personal and private information coming from a presidential candidate who purports to be an advocate constitutional privacy and limits on the data-mining of intrusive government. A particular hypocrisy not lost on the Associated Press:
[…] Protecting the privacy of law-abiding citizens from the government is a pillar of Ted Cruz’s Republican presidential candidacy, but his campaign is testing the limits of siphoning personal data from supporters.
His “Cruz Crew” mobile app is designed to gather detailed information from its users’ phones — tracking their physical movements and mining the names and contact information for friends who might want nothing to do with his campaign. (read more)
So now when you begin receiving unsolicited demands for campaign contributions, at least you’ll know where they are coming from.
It would appear the only way to safely insure you are not part of the Stazi-esque spy campaign would be to ask your friends if they support Ted Cruz and immediately delete them from your contact lists. Well, if it’s not too late that is….
And to think, you thought only President Obama was a risk to your privacy !
Cruz's presidential campaign announced Thursday that he now has the support of 'nearly half the Republicans in the Texas Legislature:
11 senators and 43 representatives. The newly expanded Texas Leadership Team also includes 57 chairs and co-chairs covering Texas' 36 congressional districts, as well as 462 chairs and co-chairs across the state's 254 counties.
Additionally....the campaign is also claiming the support of almost half the members of the State Republican Executive Committee, the governing body of the Republican Party of Texas. Twenty-seven of its 61 sitting members are now backing the senator.
Source....http://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/11/cruz-adds-home-state-support-primary-nears/
You’re missing the point.
/s
My parents have stopped giving to Tea Party groups that bombard them with phone calls. Really turned them off. Wish they wouldn’t use that tactic. Very off-putting and obnoxious.
You seem to be pretty good at the lying thing yourself.
Yeh....where’s the outrage about Facebook and Google doing this? He’s just getting information that is already out there. If people can’t or don’t figure out how to set their privacy settings on social media, what do they expect?
And every time I download an app on my phone, it always asks for access to all my data. So it’s kind of hard to get around these apps wanting your data, and it’s not like you aren’t warned or foretold what data you are agreeing to give away.
I bet many of the candidates are doing the same thing. But because Ted is the one to be feared, he’s the one that the spotlight is put on.
Woaaaa....wait a minute. Christians aren’t allowed to use smart marketing? He’s not doing anything underhand, as it’s all public knowledge and information. Yes, everyone does it, we’ll anyone who is smart does... it’s how you do business. And don’t even try to tell me that business is different than campaigning, because your biggest reason for locking Trump’s boots is that he’ll run the country like a BUSINESS.
The difference between Cruz marketing you and your grocery store is Cruz camp isn’t hiding it.
Oh and welcome Paid Trump shill. You came to FR just in time for him to run.
“I will be changing very rapidly. I’m very capable of changing to anything I want to change to” - Donald Trump
Do you really know what you’re voting for?
Boom!
Yikes. Drudge has this story up...and just sent out a Drudge Siren tweet about it. That’s gonna leave a mark.
smoking frogs will make you croak
It’s not a problem of not signing up for the app...it’s your friends signing up for the app. If they are Cruz supporters and if they get the app, the Cruz campaign will find out about you and contact you whether you want them to or not.
Stazi huh? Sundance has lost it.
I’ve been getting Cruz emails and I definitely did not sign up. My guess is the campaign bought a mailing list and carpet bombed it.
If I knew how to do a screen shot, I would gladly share with you the multiple emails I receive DAILY, from Ted, Heidi and some random staffers.
I receive texts as well. ALL of it is obnoxious and beyond over the top.
Let me go count how many I have already today.
4 emails so far - the day is young
Get over it, Trump has used the media better than Cruz. He was smarter about it. Whining that the media is on his side is absurd. It makes Cruz look desperate, whining, and lying.
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