As a devout listener to Future Tense I'd like to enlist your help in explaining the unfolding drama regarding data mining to your audience. You've successfully explained how vast spam networks are enlisted to bombard us with messages we don't want. It's time to explain how data mining, funded entirely by our tax dollars, can and will turn out
"Republican Robo-Voters" in key races throughout the country.
Your mission Jim, should you choose to accept it...
Explain what a calling record contains in simple terms (to/from/duration/location)
Explain what an email trace record contains in simple - terms (to/from/size/ip related locations)
Explain how, when cross referenced with a list of known identifiers (the ones who absolutely can be counted on to vote a particular way, like the RNC list or the NRA list), can be used to construct a target list for phone/email communications
Explain how sending carefully crafted issue messages to those prospective voters at just the right time brings them to the polls
These are the "Republican Robo-Voters".
I've seen it in action directly in a local Minnesota race in 2004. Rebecca Otto was directly targeted by the RNC in a house race, in which 98% of voters turned out and she lost by a narrow margin. The RNC called directly into the district. Our President himself called into the district.
Why was she targeted and not the hundreds of others in our local races? Because her contact information (phone/email), as well as her husband (the screen writer Shawn Otto - House of Sand and Fog) show up all too frequently in call and email records. In other words they have an extensive contact list, which translates into a large and influential "social network". Not to mention that she is talented. She was a threat because she was viable for more than just a local house race.
Simply put, once you identify those key races, by identifying the most viable opponents through quantization of their social network, you then can take the zip codes for their district and find the voters you need to bring out to defeat them. Moreover, you can target your messages VERY DIRECTLY to push those buttons. The links between NSA data collection and RNC use of the data are hard to track at the present time, but we believe they will continue to emerge. There are too many intermediaries with too many technical personnel for these details not to come out. Too many of these guys wear pages and are on call 7x24, while someone far above them get 7 figure options deals. You know the drill.
I'm not a crazed lunatic. I've done systems engineering for large corporations most of my career. I read Klein's disclosures about AT&T in detail and dissected them. I read CALEA and all its incarnations, as well as the Patriot Act and its recent revisions. These things are hard to fight with anything except valid information from reliable sources - i.e. YOU.
The outsourcing of data collection to satisfy CALEA, coupled with our pre-occupation with fighting terror at all costs, has opened this door. It will take all of us to close it and you, via your audience have a significant role to play.
It starts with labeling these voters in such a way that they'll understand how they are played - "Republican Robo-Voter" is my favorite. They need to KNOW when that EMAIL or phone call arrives the last week in October, that they were singled out to have their buttons pushed at just the right time, with their own tax dollars. It becomes nothing more than a sham Democracy if we take no action.