Can anyone say “Big Brother is watching?” 1984 may have finally arrived in the year 2016. Below are some highlights with particular links that should prove of great interest to all who care about how their children’s and their children’s children’s world develops. And a link to the original article from which these highlights are drawn.
It also wasn’t entirely clear whether or in what ways Big Data would be a threat or a boon to humanity.
Since November 9th, 2016, we know the answer. Because one and the same company was behind Trump’s online ad campaigns and late 2016’s other shocker, the Brexit “Leave” campaign: Cambridge Analytica, with its CEO Alexander Nix.
Two psychologists were able to demonstrate in the 1980s that the character profile of a person can be measured and expressed in five dimensions, the Big Five: Openness (how open are you to new experiences?), Conscientiousness (how much of a perfectionist are you?), Extroversion (how sociable are you?), Agreeableness (how considerate and cooperative are you?), and Neuroticism (how sensitive/vulnerable are you?). With these five dimensions (O.C.E.A.N.), you can determine fairly precisely what kind of person you are dealing with—her needs and fears as well as how she will generally behave.
“‘We are a global election management agency,’ said the company website [really, the website has even creepier language on it than that. ‘Behavioral change communication’? Go look already].”
“SCL Elections has a formidable track record around the world for delivering electoral success. By breaking down issues and the electorate in a scientific way we help Presidents, Prime Ministers and candidates better present their policies and communicate with their audience. [This is not a process of representing the electorate. Rather it is a process of manipulation of the electorate.] With a suite of products and services SCL Elections combines data-driven messaging and years of electoral experience to give your campaign the winning edge.
“From identifying the target audience for a campaign to establishing the key behaviour triggers and filters and deploying on-the-ground teams, we collect a lot of information.”
“By combining qualitative and quantitative research and applying the BDi’s behavioural methodologies, we can deliver unparalleled insight into the motivations and actions of target groups and accurately predict likely responses to particular subjects and methods of communication.” [read behavior modification]
https://sclgroup.cc/social/services/research
“SCL Social’s communication strategies and campaigns have helped communities around the world achieve lasting change. We know that real change comes from real people, so we work to engage and encourage community involvement by creating grassroots outreach networks on local and national levels.
“We work with our partners every step of the way, from helping to organize and deploy field teams to measuring campaign impact and effectiveness throughout an engagement programme’s lifetime. This approach provides invaluable insight and the flexibility to evolve and refine campaigns in real time.”
“We work across all media platforms and on every level of a community or country, from direct local interactions to large-scale event management. Our communication programmes are delivered in three stages, covering rigorous planning, implementation and analysis:
“Strategic Campaign Planning – By combining historical and contextual information with SCL’s on-the-ground research techniques and advanced data analysis we can identify target audiences and key community influencers, and begin to structure the engagement strategy.
“Engagement Strategy – Once the target audience is identified an engagement strategy can be designed and tested to produce a fully workable communication campaign across all relevant channels, from face-to-face conversations to online advertising.
“Effectiveness Measuring – We closely measure the implementation and reception of all our campaigns so we can monitor their effectiveness in real time, suggest changes based on live data, and propose intelligent recommendations for future communication projects.”
[One can find no better definition of the total opposite of a GRASSROOTS network than this description. This is blatant “mass conditioning” not grassroots organizing.]
https://sclgroup.cc/social/services/communications
“At Cambridge Analytica we understand that every customer, every cause, and every campaign is unique. That’s why we help you connect with every member of your audience on an individual level in ways that engage, inform and drive them to action.
“We bring together 25 years’ experience in behavioral change, pioneering data science, and cutting-edge technology to offer unparalleled audience insight and engagement services and products.
“We collect up to 5,000 data points per person on over 220 million Americans, and use more than 100 data variables to model target audience groups and predict the behavior of like-minded people.
“When you go beneath the surface and learn what people really care about you can create fully integrated engagement strategies that connect with every person at the individual level.”
https://cambridgeanalytica.org/about
Cambridge Analytica is doing precisely what Kosinski had warned about. They have assembled psychograms for all adult US citizens, 220 million people, and have used this data to influence electoral outcomes.
Cambridge Analytica divided the US population into 32 personality types, and concentrated on only seventeen states… Cambridge Analytica found that a predeliction for American-produced cars is the best predictor of a possible Trump voter. Among other things, this kind of knowledge can inform Trump himself which messages to use, and where. The decision to focus candidate visits in Michigan and Wisconsin over the final weeks of the campaign was based on this manner of data analysis. The candidate himself became an implementation instrument of the model.
Perhaps it is time we start asking the Five Powerful Questions:
Don’t forget to check out the link to original post is:
https://antidotezine.com/2017/01/22/trump-knows-you/
rogerwillismills 
Another insightful post, Roger. Too bad I’m late to the party, I would have like to have read Antidotezine’s translation of Vice’s article (the last link you posted), but . . . it’s been replaced with this:
This information needs to get out, but some people have the attention span of a gnat, and/or simply don’t have the time to read such lengthy articles, and Vice’s article was exceptionally lengthy. I appreciate when people take the time to bring important snippets of information that is more likely to reach a wider audience.
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Unfortunately I don’t recall what the translation said exactly but it would have mirrored (or rather I hope to have mirrored their) my piece.
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