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President Obama's re-election campaign has by all accounts an impressive voter database that is getting more comprehensive by the day. But exactly how much information it is storing about supporters and what it intends to do with the cache remain big unknowns because the campaign won't talk about it, reports Lois Beckett at ProPublica. The database collects nuts-and-bolts info provided by supporters such as email addresses and ZIP codes, but it also tracks what they view on the campaign website and, via cookies from third-party ad vendors, elsewhere on the Internet.
Those who log onto the website via Facebook give the campaign access to all the information they've made public there. And don't expect it all to magically disappear when the election is over. The "campaign's privacy policy reserves the right to share the personal information it collects 'with candidates, organizations, groups or causes that we believe have similar political viewpoints, principles or objectives.'" Click to read the full article here, or to read an earlier story on the the campaign's marketing strategy here.
