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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump campaign app is a 'voter surveillance tool': MIT
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About 800,000 people have downloaded the Trump 2020 campaigns app. According to a study by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, users are handing over a massive amount of personal information and an astonishing amount of access to the Trump campaign.
MIT, which investigated both the Trump campaign app and the Biden campaign app says the Trump campaign app is a voter surveillance tool with extraordinary power.
The Biden campaign app also collects data but far less than the Trump campaign app.
Data collection, MIT Technology Review reports, is perhaps the most powerful thing the Trump 2020 app does. On signing up, users are required to provide a phone number for a verification code, as well as their full name, email address, and zip code. They are also highly encouraged to share the app with their existing contacts. This is part of a campaign strategy for reaching the 40 to 50 million citizens expected to vote for Trumps reelection: to put it bluntly, the campaign says it intends to collect every single one of these voters cell-phone numbers. This strategy means the app also makes extensive permission requests, asking for access to location data, phone identity, and control over the handsets Bluetooth function.
Thats not all.
The Trump 2020 re-election app is often actively deceiving readers with highly questionable or entirely disproven information under headlines such as Media Continue to Spread Debunked Theory About Tear Gas, Media Mask-Shamers Keep Getting Caught Breaking Their Own Rules, or Top 8 Moments from Joe Bidens Embarrassingly Disastrous, Epically Boring Livestream.'
Security researchers found it had left information exposed that could allow hackers to access the user data, MIT reports.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/trump-campaign-app-is-a-voter-surveillance-tool-mit/
Most of that Open Sourced software is rife with vulnerabilities. It's a fallacy that Oper Source software is reviewed by others to keep it safe. They are actually filled with compromising code, the developer communities have been infiltrated by hackers and nation-state actors. Open Source allows developers to easily deduce holes and exposures in code with little effort. The only ones who seem to report the vulnerabilities are college academia, as most others either don't have time to review and analyze the code--they just use it hoping others did that task for them.
Anyone who trusts the Trump campaign or GOPers wither their data are fools.
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Mike 03
(16,616 posts)one of his supporters. I wonder if, knowing what they've downloaded, they would delete this app? Or just keep it and say, "I don't care, the president can know anything he wants about me!"
Fools.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,869 posts)What do you s'pose they'll do with it?
BComplex
(8,067 posts)I hope after he's gone from office....if he ever IS gone from office...I hope he is exposed for everything he has done.
Can the FBI or security agencies EVER undo the damage that has been done to our international security? The Russians are so up in our business that every single person is now on their radar.
This is not the America I grew up in. I'm not sure it's the America I want to live in. We are in really dangerous territory.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Of these people who have voluntarily downloaded and are using the Trump campaign app, how many of them are 100% convinced that they're being micro-chipped by vaccines (they aren't)?
TheBlackAdder
(28,222 posts)dalton99a
(81,599 posts)As you walk past a beacon embedded in a campaign sign or some other part of the physical environment, you are recorded and identified through Bluetooth or similar means. This data is then used to build a profile that can be used to advertise to you or people like you. One political consultant we interviewed for our study explained how this practice developed long before political apps were created:
They [the apps] are plugged into different marketplaces, so if you open up Facebook or Google Maps or Candy Crush, even though you didnt explicitly do anythingif you have location access enabled on those apps, that app will record your location at the instance you opened that app, and then that information can be sold to a third party.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/21/1004228/trumps-data-hungry-invasive-app-is-a-voter-surveillance-tool-of-extraordinary-scope/
dickthegrouch
(3,184 posts)Anyone collecting data on you has to get your permission and tell you what data they're collecting, what they are going to use it for and what kinds of organizations they are going to share it with.
There's a personal right of action which nets one $750 per occurrence of violations for California residents.
Help drain his coffers. File your CCPA violation suit!
keithbvadu2
(36,937 posts)Probably covered in the 'agreement' like the waivers for Trump rallies.
dalton99a
(81,599 posts)mercuryblues
(14,543 posts)So much for small government.
Kaiserguy
(740 posts)Trump & Putin now have my information's ? If so that is just plain wrong!!!
mercuryblues
(14,543 posts)I also suspect there is no way to completely delete the App once a person downloads it.
The App also had a securuty flaw that allowed hackers to access personal info. Who wants to bet that was placed in there for Putin's use?
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)What if I sign up with alot of bogus info. I could severely limit access to my data. Maybe give them a landline or VOIP phone. But in the process, give them the idea they have support especially in areas that doesn't exist. It could screw up their targeting efforts and have them spending money in the wrong place.
Grins
(7,234 posts)Because...?
What do you do with that? How?
Maraya1969
(22,505 posts)like Alexa can be manipulated from outside to open the doors and such. Which is when I decided to never get one of those.
dalton99a
(81,599 posts)The Trump 2020 app is a voter surveillance tool of extraordinary power
Both presidential campaigns use apps to capture data, but Trump's asks to scoop up your identity, your location, and control of your phone's Bluetooth function.
Maraya1969
(22,505 posts)was a rediculous poll that had questions like, "Do you support Trump 100%, 90%, 80% or are you the enemy?"
OK that is not an actual question but it could have been.
I just wrote back, "Stop" and they went away.
mercuryblues
(14,543 posts)Maraya1969
(22,505 posts)mercuryblues
(14,543 posts)A member of our research team discovered that the app was compiled with an older version of Android, which does not include some of the latest privacy improvements, and uses software provided by a company called Phunware, well known for collecting peoples location information and relations with the Trump campaign, a role highlighted by a Wall Street Journal investigation last year.
Phunware has come under major scrutiny recently for accepting millions of dollars in federal loans intended to help small businesses cope with the coronavirus, and in May Nasdaq filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to delist the company over its finances. Phunwares invasive tactics for gathering data and reaching voters have drawn comparisons to Cambridge Analytica.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/21/1004228/trumps-data-hungry-invasive-app-is-a-voter-surveillance-tool-of-extraordinary-scope/
ThoughtCriminal
(14,049 posts)Plus, if I were a scammer looking for a database of the most gullible people on Earth, this would be worth 10,000 Trump body-weights in gold.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,858 posts)I'm sure that some young Russians could use that money someday.
C_U_L8R
(45,021 posts)Would they let any other app provider get away with this much?
dickthegrouch
(3,184 posts)C_U_L8R
(45,021 posts)Hey, let's give it to Mikey, he'll download anything.
herding cats
(19,568 posts)You know? I'm just mentioning if they happened to download this, they can legally complain to their platforms.