
Neuropolitics: Where campaigns try to read your mind - sharp11
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/americas/neuropolitics-where-campaigns-try-to-read-your-mind.html
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hackuser
The article doesn't use the words "privacy" or "confendentiality". There's a
presumption that there are no limits to spying on private citizens; we're free
game, with no interests or rights; take as much as you can from them.

The longer the public takes to understand and react the harder it will be to
undo. Already there are organizations that are highly invested in it, from
Internet companies to law enforcement and security (and their vendors, such as
StingRay) to sales and marketing operations. They will not give up their
investment easily.

Clearly these organizations think there is something wrong, or they would
openly disclose it and talk about it. But if that's what you want, great -
just give me a reasonable way to opt out (i.e., without walking around in a
ski mask and with use of modern necessities like telecommunications and public
transit).

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bgun
Aren't we "fair game", though? When it comes to winning or losing an election,
there's no law that could stop the deployment of these technologies, but
merely influence how openly they could operate.

I'm not trying to doomsay here, only pointing out that this would be far from
the most brazen that political campaigns are routinely known to be, both
ethically and legally speaking.

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tucif
This could actually be very invasive and in a gray area privacy-wise. I guess
this is a matter of not having expectation of privacy in a public place where
the camera/sensors are being set up?

I live in Mexico and had no idea this kind of techniques were being used, let
alone by politicians.

Recently there has been a lot of enforcement here on privacy policies being
displayed physically in places where the business may be collecting your
personal data, yet I've never seen an ad saying "I'm recording your reaction
and using this for research".

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nosuchthing
Adam Curtis's "Century of the Self" covers the historical context of
advertising, propaganda (rebranded "Public Relations" by Sigmund Freud's
nephew, Edward Bernays), and Western politics in the 20th century fairly well.

The rise of advertising and focus groups to design products and politics to
appeal to emotional desires.

[https://vimeo.com/75776128](https://vimeo.com/75776128),
[https://vimeo.com/75779119](https://vimeo.com/75779119) (pt2),
[https://vimeo.com/10245146](https://vimeo.com/10245146) (pt3),
[https://vimeo.com/75784765](https://vimeo.com/75784765) (pt4)

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gmatthewson
If only everyone knew how far off they were from reading anyone's mind
though...these measures are indeed objective, but interpreting them still
requires leaps of faith. If someone's heart rate drops during one of these
sessions is it because they are bored, or relaxed? Their skin conductance, the
things you see on their fingers, will be low in both of these situations. Good
luck with the EEG - the best statistical algorithms in the world still can't
to distinguish boredom from relaxation. Snake oil, dammit!...but phone me in
as a private consultant for $1000 an hour and I might change my mind.

