The view into campaign data use is “unsettling,” the Los Angeles Times reports, due to both its unregulated nature and the eerily specific information nonchalantly changing hands. “This is the Wild West,” said SPQR Strategies’ Tim Sparapani. “There is nothing that is off-limits to political data mining.” Yet the lack of regulatory legislation can partially be found in legislative hesitancy to “rein in industry that they increasingly rely on to win elections,” the report states. “Knowing the nuances of each voter beyond whether they lean right or left makes every difference,” said “data crunching” firm Rocket Fuel’s JC Medici. “We can identify what people are persuadable.” Among the data being swapped? “One company was selling lists of rape victims; another was offering up the home addresses of police officers,” the report continues.
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