Obama Organizer App Raises Privacy Fears
We had a feeling someone was going to find the new Obama/Biden app a little troubling. When we first looked at the campaign’s new iPhone app last week in the Data and Targeting Insider we noted that its ability to load voter registration
information on your neighbors was “creepy,” although it used publicly available information.
The app generally gives Obama supporters information and localized talking points to leverage in discussions with others. But the app also hopes to get people involved in actively recruiting voters in their vicinity. The Canvass button in the app gives the recruiter a map of their area and populates it with flags for nearby houses, including the first name, last initial, gender and age of the occupant.
A week later after the iPhone release, team Obama issued the Android version for even greater reach. Reuters has finally caught up with the app and has gotten some privacy watchdogs and experts to voice misgivings. A law professor from the University of Chicago, Lior Strahilevitz, tells Reuters: “I think some people view this app as creepy but there is nothing illegal about what they are doing.” The information in the app is aggregating data from various public sources to give users a roster of canvassing prospects in the same way campaigns already give their organizers and volunteers.
But in the case of a publicly available app, this is information that now can get into the hands of anyone with a smartphone. The Obama campaign tells Reuters that it can take action against any wrongdoing associated with the app. In our use of the app, it does not allow the person to access the canvassing function without registering with a name email or Facebook Connect login. But that appears to be the extent of the tracking that the Obama campaign can perform on a canvasser.
Recent Mobile Marketing Daily Articles
-
B&N Nook: Let's Try That Again May 6, 8:17 a.m.
Barnes & Noble is trying to come at the tablet market yet again this week with ... -
Robert Scoble Doesn't Want To Take His Google Glass Device Off...Ever April 29, 9:05 a.m.
Longtime industry analyst Robert Scoble has been giving his readers some unique insight and perspective on ... -
Smartphone Shipments Pass The Halfway Milestone April 26, 9:20 a.m.
While smartphone shipments and ownership in the U.S. achieved a majority penetration a while ago, the ... -
Twitter Does Stand-Up In New Comedy Central Project April 24, 9:08 a.m.
Mel Brooks on Twitter? The fabled 2000-year-old man will in fact get his own handle and ... -
Summly Built Into Updated Yahoo App April 23, 12:50 p.m.
Yahoo made a splash last month when it acquired Summly, the startup launched by U.K.-based 17-year-old ... -
ACLU Joins The Fight Against Android Fragmentation? April 22, 9 a.m.
Developers frustrated by the fragmented Android hardware terrain got an unlikely ally last week in the ... -
LinkedIn Launches Major Mobile App Upgrade, Leads With Content April 18, 9 a.m.
While Facebook and Twitter have been following the majority of their users as they migrate to ... -
Google Adds Quick Links, Quick Views To Mobile Search Results April 17, 8:21 a.m.
In an effort to make mobile search results for users closer to the information they seek, ... -
Facebook Home Features Coming To iOS April 17, 8:21 a.m.
Facebook Home may not be coming to iOS, but some features of the software overlay for ... -
LinkedIn Buys Pulse For $90 Million April 12, 2:10 p.m.
LinkedIn on Thursday confirmed that it had acquired newsreader app Pulse as it seeks to offer more content ...
Be the first to comment on "Obama Organizer App Raises Privacy Fears "
Leave a Comment