This is taken from Andrew Bolt but as tawdry as it is, this is a direct steal from the Obama campaign last year. If you go to the imin website you will see there is the “Dinner with Julia” ad, an invitation to volunteer and a bit of information requested. It is the information that is the entire point of the process.

Note, that if you fill out the form what they will then know is:

• your name
• your likely gender (based on your name – ie Fred or Ginger)
• your street address
• your postal code
• your mobile number with “send me text messages” already ticked
• your email address with “send me email updates” already ticked

These are bits of data that can be cross referenced with who knows what other information that may have been obtained in no end of other ways (although surely not from the ATO).

I dealt with exactly this in my Quadrant article in January this year, The New Politics of Data-Driven Elections. In it I discussed the data mining and information gathering processes used by Obama last year which is exactly the same as the one now being used by the ALP:

My favourite operation was the $3 donation strategy. It was the ‘win a date with George Clooney or Sarah Jessica Parker’ by donating only $3. Focus groups had shown that no one worried about $3 as a sum of money to spend, but people still felt it to be a meaningful contribution. But in sending in your $3, you also had to provide a considerable amount of information. The money meant next to nothing to the Obama campaign but the information was pure gold.

Now here the same. And because they have your phone and your email address, they can tailor the message just for you. A woman from a working class suburb will be targeted with one set of messages and a male from a more middle class suburb will be getting a different message instead.

The Obama techniques will now be used here and while the ALP will fall short at the election, it will certainly help wind back the Coalition advantage. This is one part of the democratic processes the Libs better get themselves into in a very big way because this is the way of the future.