DIANNE BYSTROM: "For the campaigns, I think they're very powerful. For the voter, and the consumer, I think as technology gets more sophisticated, it gets a little creepy."
BARBARA KLEIN: Daniel Kreiss is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina.
Professor Kreiss says campaigns will increasingly combine information about what people do online and offline in their everyday life.
DANIEL KREISS: "What I think is starting to happen now and is genuinely new -- although there were the first steps in this direction in two thousand eight -- is the increasing ability of campaigns now to sync their general voter databases with online user data that they’re getting from other sources."
STEVE EMBER: Privacy is not the only concern that some people have about political data mining. Professor Kreiss says some scholars worry that it will harm democracy. They say highly targeted campaigning means fewer people will hear a candidate’s message.
Andrew Dreschler, the data miner in Washington, thinks just the opposite.
ANDREW DRESCHLER: "I would take that argument and turn it around. You are talking to those who are most interested and most likely to participate and those who should really have the information."
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BARBARA KLEIN: Our program was written by Kelly Nuxoll. We welcome your comments at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find a transcript and MP3 of our program and a PDF version for e-readers. I'm Barbara Klein.
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