Politicians 'will need to know more about individuals, but the closer they'll come to offending voters' sense of privacy,' he said. They're just very careful they're not blatant about it,' he said. Map Applications, which also works with Iowa Republicans among other GOP and conservative groups, can link more than 40 layers of personal data to a voter's name and address, and then make sense of it all. The information includes voters' ages along with their children's ages, the value of their homes, whether they have bank cards, and their ethnicity. Much of the data resold by Map Applications originated with credit bureau giant Trans Union, which for years has fought Federal Trade Commission limits on the use of information contained in individuals' credit records.
Political campaigns have other smorgasbords of data from which to choose.
One is the SRDS Direct Marketing List Source, the bible of the direct marketing industry. Almost half the members of the Senate, more than 200 House members and 46 state parties buy lists from another firm, Aristotle International. By culling rolls of registered voters in county courthouses and other sites, it has assembled a catalogue of 150 million voters and can append scores of other personal details, such as the model of a voter's car and estimated income. The Republican National Committee runs an even bigger list, with 165 million voters' names. Most are accompanied by an array of data provided by vendors, such as whether the voter is a military veteran.