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  Cruz app data collection helps campaign read minds of voters
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ContributorRP 
Last EditedRP  Feb 13, 2016 08:21am
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CategoryStrategy
AuthorMICHAEL BIESECKER and JULIE BYKOWICZ
News DateThursday, February 11, 2016 09:50:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionProtecting the privacy of law-abiding citizens from the government is a pillar of Ted Cruz's Republican presidential candidacy, but his campaign is testing the limits of siphoning personal data from supporters.

His "Cruz Crew" mobile app is designed to gather detailed information from its users' phones — tracking their physical movements and mining the names and contact information for friends who might want nothing to do with his campaign.

That information and more is then fed into a vast database containing details about nearly every adult in the United States to build psychological profiles that target individual voters with uncanny accuracy.

The Cruz app prompts supporters to register using their Facebook logins, giving the campaign access to personal information such as name, age range, gender, location and photograph, plus lists of friends and relatives. Those without a Facebook account must either provide an email address or phone number to use the app.

The Cruz app separately urges users to let it download their phone contacts, giving the campaign a trove of phone numbers and personal email addresses. The campaign says that by using its app, "You hereby give your express consent to access your contact list," but Wilson said the campaign will not do this to anyone who declines to allow it when the app requests permission.

Cruz's app also transmits to the campaign each user's physical location whenever the app is active, unless a user declines to allow it. The campaign said it does this "so that we can connect you to other Cruz Crew users based on your particular geographic location."

The campaign tells users it can share all the personal information it collects with its consultants or other organizations, groups, causes, campaigns or political organizations with similar viewpoints or goals.
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