Free Republic

The Deutsche Post subsidiary Deutsche Post Direkt has rejected claims that it “flogged” client microtargeting data to clients, including German political parties such as the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP). The Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported that the two parties had bought “more than a billion” details of personal data about potential voters from the subsidiary, which offers targeted-mailing concepts to its clients. Deutsche Post insists that it never sells details of addresses or individual households, and that the data it offers to clients — which it calls microcells — is based on “a standard of 6.6...

Profiles, status updates and messages all include a mother lode of voluntarily provided information. The social media site is using it to help advertisers find exactly who they want to reach. Privacy watchdogs are aghast. ### Julee Morrison has been obsessed with Bon Jovi since she was a teenager. So when paid ads for fan sites started popping up on the 41-year-old Salt Lake City blogger's Facebook page, she was thrilled. She described herself as a "clicking fool," perusing videos and photos of the New Jersey rockers. Then it dawned on Morrison why all those Bon Jovi ads appeared every...

Customers who use their credit cards at stores can no longer be asked for their ZIP code, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

NEWLAND, N.C. -- Barbara Aycock thought the phone call she received in July, about a meeting for supporters of Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama here, had to be a prank. Sparsely populated Avery County, deep in the Appalachian Mountains, has voted Republican every presidential election in its 97-year history, usually with more than 75% of the vote. There's seldom a Democratic candidate running for county office. With the help of a massive database of potential Democratic supporters, though, the Obama campaign found Ms. Aycock and a group of more than 40 volunteers in the county. "They started coming out of...

Here is some interesting insight on the GOP Voter Vault, or micro-targeting, recently revealed in the MSM, from the book One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century by Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten: “The more scientific strategy has transformed the way political campaigns are fought, and it has put the Republicans in the lead. While the old-model campaign sought to educate voters about a candidate and his or her views, the new strategy almost completely reversed that approach. Instead of educating voters about Bush, Rove worked at educating himself and his staff about voters-and about...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gin or vodka? Ford or BMW? Perrier or Fiji water? Does the car you buy or what's in your fridge say anything about how you'll vote? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign thinks so. Employing technology honed in President Bush's 2004 victory, the Republican governor's re-election team has created a massive computer storehouse of data on personal buying habits and voter records to scout up likely supporters. Campaign officials say the operation, run in cooperation with the state Republican Party, is the largest of its kind in any state, at any time. Some strategists believe the consumer information...