Prof David Carroll campaigned for Barack Obama during his presidential bid but did not do the same for Hillary Clinton.Now he asks himself whether so-called dark ads - individually targeted online messages - were to blame."I am open to the possibility," he told the BBC.
"I am concerned I got ads or stories with falsified information about Clinton that may have discouraged me from volunteering for her campaign. I volunteered for Obama so why did I not do it again?"He is one of the 240 million Americans which controversial political campaigning firm Cam-bridge Analytica claims to have built a detailed profile on. Such profiles are said to include what car a person owns, their health concerns and what media they consume.
That information when combined with pyschographics - micro-targeting personality types with messaging that plays on their fears or concerns - could be a powerful tool in persuading people which way to vote.The firm, which was employed by President Trump's election campaign, is currently mired in controversy over how it acquired and used the Facebook data of 50 million Americans.
At the start of the year, Prof Carroll requested that Cambridge Analytica provide details on the personal information it had collected on him. What he received was both worrying and intriguing.It included rankings on 10 issues - giving him a three out of 10 on gun rights, and seven out of 10 on national security importance, alongside the suggestion that he was unlikely to vote Republican.
-Digital Age Desk
Latest News