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In terms of law, I think they key is that (presumably) the Obama campaign didn't have direct access to that data. Not a lawyer, but saw enough of the Jon Oliver / Jon Stewart SuperPAC skit to get the general idea that communicating directly with your funding source is a no-no.

In terms of ethics, the key difference is mentioned in your article:

The only difference, as far as we can discern, between the two campaigns' use of Facebook, is that in the case of Obama the users themselves agreed to share their data with the Obama campaign, as well as that of their friends. The users that downloaded the Cambridge app, meanwhile, were only told that the information would be used for academic purposes.

This is big. If a university researcher asks me a few questions and tells me that my answers will be used purely for research purposes, I am much more likely to engage than if a campaigner did the same. It would be unethical for a campaigner to present themselves as an academic in order to get more information.



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