Dark Money Political Groups Target Voters Based on Their Internet Habits

[Omaha Steve]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10577-dark-money-political-groups-target-voters-based-on-their-internet-habits

Saturday, 28 July 2012 12:24 By Lois Beckett, ProPublica | Report

Lauren Berns was browsing Talking Points Memo when he saw an ad with President Obama's face. "Stop the Reckless Spending," the ad read, and in smaller print, Paid for by Crossroads GPS. Berns was surprised. Why was Crossroads GPS, a group that powerful Republican strategist Karl Rove helped found,advertising on a liberal-leaning political website? Looking closely at the ad, Berns saw a small blue triangle in the upper-left hand corner. He knew what that meant: this ad wasn't being shown to every person who read that page. It was being targeted to him in particular. Tax-exempt groups like Crossroads GPS have become among the biggest players in this year's election. They're often called "dark money" groups, because they can raise accept unlimited amounts of money and never have to disclose their donors.

These groups are spending massively on television spots attacking different candidates. These ads are often highly publicized and get plenty of media attention.

But these same dark money groups are also quietly expanding their online advertising efforts, using sophisticated targeting tactics to send their ads to specific kinds of people.

Who they're targeting, and what data they're using, is secret.

FULL story at link.

[Kalidurga]

1. Yeah great strategy

Target people that won't send you money. Good, though I hope they waste a lot of money barking up the wrong trees.

[AndyTiedye]

2. At Least Facebook Lets You Flag Them as "Misleading" or "Offensive"

[bob4460]

3. Best cure for all ads

Mozilla Firefox with ad block plus ,ads are GONE, the best cure for the ad based internet. Works great for the new Facebook also

[siligut]

4. Thank you for this

We need to know everything the RW is doing with all that money, it is only going to get worse.