Wednesday, April 11, 2018

One Cambridge Analytica question seeming to get insufficient attention: snake oil, or real?

Implausible sounding, RT reporting:

The data mining firm, which worked for President Donald Trump's campaign in 2016, pitched its “unique” data and “psychological profiling” abilities, which could be used to micro-target voters on Facebook, according to a Channel 4 News report.

According to the documents seen by Channel 4, Cambridge Analytica told prospective clients that its data had been successfully used by the North Carolina Republican Party, the conservative For America advocacy group and a number of Republican campaigns in Arkansas, North Carolina and New Hampshire, which were funded by the John Bolton Super PAC.

Cambridge Analytica claimed it had been able to “accurately predict partisanship, turnout, issue importance and build psychographic profiles” for voters in North Carolina.

“We produced clusters of voters based on the modeled data to maximize campaign impact, which enabled the creation of tailored messages directed to specific voter groups,” the company said.

The firm even boasted that they had been able to boost turnout among target voters by about eight percent. Adverts created by Cambridge Analytica were “tailored to voter personality profiles” and had “clear calls to action” that reminded people to vote.

The company detailed how it had categorized voters according to personality types in North Carolina in 2014.

Contribution solicitation lists appear to be bought and sold or otherwise exchanged among candidates and parties and outside groups; as a cottage industry. Selling "special" capabilities beyond lists has no aim beyond cash flow generation. As such, reality could take a big hit when cash generation governs above any testable truth.