What the life and death of Cambridge Analytica tells us about politics — and ourselves

Politics and data are now inextricably linked. Cambridge Analytica was part of a world increasingly fueled by vast troves of personal data that billions of Internet users emit every day. Politicians now have the tools to target us each individually — based on data suggesting our race, religion, income, shopping habits, sexual orientation, medical concerns, personality traits, current location, past locations, pet preference or Zodiac sign if they'd like. Granular personal data on each of us can be used to create precise messages to any individual voter, then delivered to us through the online ecosystem over Facebook, Instagram, Google, Twitter and other free services. Such tactics have long been standard in commerce -- ever noticed how ads for those nice hiking boots keep following you around the Web? -- but all these tactics of manipulation are equally available to those working in largely unregulated political realms too. Experts expect this technology to only improve, especially as artificial intelligence and virtual reality steadily grow more powerful. The era of campaign season “deep fakes” -- imagine a convincing but phony clip of a politician doing something appalling -- is not far off.