Fully half of the presidents of the 21st century have lost the popular vote. This is a trend - a very dangerous one.
The Right Wing, aided by tech-bro billios and Big Data* **, along with some judicious chaos (Brooks Brothers Riot in the 200 election), have become very skilled at gaming the EC.
*In 2016, Facebook illegally provided detailed user data to Cambridge Analytica, which used the data to micro-target political ads in key districts, giving Trump the EC win despite losing the pop vote by millions. FB and CA were fined, a slap on the wrist. And we have the nerve to lecture other countries about "democracy"?
** Speaking of ads, I saw a terrifying set of articles today about companies using mikes in phones and "smart" devices to listen to nearby conversations. They use AI to extract key words and send ads to those devices. This has applications WAY beyond selling makeup or plumbing services. Do we think political actors aren't using this tech?
It's not just Russia listening.
I followed a chain of links from this article:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/04/yes-it-sounds-like-a-conspiracy-theory-but-maybe-our-phones-really-are-listening-to-us
which led to this
https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-partner-phones-listening-microphone
In a pitch deck to prospective customers, one of Facebook's alleged marketing partners explained how it listens to users' smartphone microphones and advertises to them accordingly.
As 404 Media reports based on documents leaked to its reporters, the TV and radio news giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims that its so-called "Active Listening" software uses artificial intelligence to "capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations."
"Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers," the deck continues.
...
"We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal?" a since-deleted Cox blog post from November 2023 noted. "It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you. When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page term of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included."
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