Bits Blog: Romney and Obama Campaigns Leaking Web Site Visitor Data

Some pages titles on Mitt Romney’s campaign site included a user’s name, giving third parties the opportunity to collect identifying data.

The presidential campaign sites BarackObama.com and MittRomney.com have recently ratcheted up their use of third-party Web trackers. These are companies, like ad networks and data brokers working on behalf of the campaigns, that collect information about users’ online activities to show political ads to people tailored to their own interests and beliefs.

Spokesmen for each campaign have separately said that their own campaign had put safeguards in place to protect that user data, as Charles Duhigg and I reported in an article published in The New York Times on Oct. 28.

But now a new study by Jonathan Mayer, a graduate student in computer science and law at Stanford University, reports that both sites are leaking information about site visitors to a number of third-party trackers operating on their pages.

Several pages on the Obama site included a user’s personal information in the page title at the top of the page or in the URL address, Mr. Mayer said, thereby giving third parties operating on the site the opportunity to collect identifying data. The information flowing to third parties, he said, variously included the username; the proper name under which a person registered; and their street address and ZIP code.

On the Romney site, Mr. Mayer said, he found that a number of pages included the user’s name in the page title. Many pages also included a unique numerical ID number in the URL, which flowed to third parties, he said.

“Are the campaigns identifying their supporters to third-party trackers? Are they directly undermining the anonymity properties that they are so quick to invoke?” Mr. Mayer wrote in a blog post published on Thursday morning. “Yes, they are.”

Several pages on President Obama’s campaign site include personal information, like a user’s home address, in the URL.

In an e-mail, Adam Fetcher, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, wrote that, regardless of the kinds of data that flows from the site to its third-party partners, the campaign does not allow those trackers to use the voter data collected on the site for any other clients or purposes.

“We do not provide any personal information to outside entities for their commercial use or for reasons other than what’s related to the work they do with us,” Mr. Fetcher wrote, “and we stipulate that third party partners not use data collected on the site for other purposes.”

A spokesman for the Romney campaign did not return an e-mail request seeking comment.

Mr. Mayer tested the Obama and Romney sites by registering as a user and examining the page codes and layouts that resulted as he visited the sites.

In registering for the Obama site with his e-mail address, for example, Mr. Mayer found that the site by default assigned him a username that was the first part of his e-mail address. On certain pages on the site, he reported, that username appeared in the URL, thereby sharing part of his e-mail address with ten tracking companies operating on the page. Because many consumers tend to use the same e-mail address or username on many sites, leaking such data could allow third parties to link other public accounts on the Web to individual users, Mr. Mayer said.

Meanwhile, after Mr. Mayer found that the Romney site leaked his member ID number in the URL, he logged out and then immediately tried to access his own information on the site using that ID number — a tactic a third party who collected that data could hypothetically use. When he used that ID number on the site without being logged in, the site showed a message that said “Access Denied.” At the same time, he said, the very same “access denied” page leaked more information on that page: the name under which he had registered.

I registered on both campaign sites on Wednesday night and had a similar experience.

The Obama site automatically assigned me a user name —nsinger — taken from my e-mail address that was visible in the URL on various pages. Using a tracker identification program called Ghostery, I found four different trackers that could collect that information.

On the Romney site, certain pages leaked the ID number I had been assigned in the URL. Other pages, I noted, leaked my ZIP code or state in the URL.

Advertising industry executives have long argued that third-party tracking is beneficial to online consumers because it helps brands show relevant digital ads. They also argue the data collection about online consumers is “anonymous” because the third parties do not collect identifying information like people’s names and home addresses.

But Mr. Mayer said his study, and previous research by other computer experts, indicated that many sites leak users’ personal information to third parties — challenging the claims about “anonymous” data.

“I think that for both campaigns this leakage is likely totally inadvertent,” Mr. Mayer said in a phone interview. “But claiming this tracking data is anonymous just ignores the reality.”

He also took a reporter to task for failing to sufficiently investigate the campaigns’ claims about their data protection practices.

“The Gray Lady also deserves a light rap on the knuckles for insufficiently scrutinizing the campaigns’ anonymity assertions,” Mr. Mayer wrote.

Point taken.

Gloria Allred’s Surprise For Mitt Romney Revealed!

Gloria Allred's October surprise for Governor Mitt Romney involves allegations about a child custody matter that the Republican presidential hopeful testified about involving his very good friend, the former CEO of Staples Tom Stemberg, and his divorce form one of his two ex-wives,RadarOnline.com is reporting.

The founder of Staples, who spoke on behalf of Governor Mitt Romney at the Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay, Florida last summer, has four sons from two different ex-wives, Maureen Sullivan Stemberg and Dola Hamilton Stemburg. Mitt Romney's hedge fund, Bain Capital, was an early investor of Staples. Tom Stemberg's sons are in their mid-teens and early twenties.

PHOTOS: Take A Peek At Mitt Romney’s Many Mansions

"Governor Mitt Romney gave sworn testimony about his observations of Tom's role as a father to his four sons," a source close to the situation told RadarOnline.com. Our source wouldn't provide any additional information because of Governor Romney's sworn declaration and gag order.

Stemberg's first wife, Maureen, had a documentary, The Maureen Sullivan Stemberg Story: A Portrait in Courage, which aired on Lifetime. According to a 2008 press release, "Maureen Sullivan Stemberg will provide an in-depth account in this first-time tell all tale of the interweaving relationships and strange bedfellow that business has made in her life. Such luminaries include former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney – who was the former Republican nominee in the 2008 Presidential campaign, as well as one of the first major investors for Staples while he was employed by Bain Capital, Boston, MA. This story will include the injustice of the Mass. Probate Justice system. Other heavy hitting names have yet to be released in this as of yet untold story including Dola Davis Hamilton Stemberg."

PHOTOS: Take A Peek Inside GOP Candidates Homes

Tom Stemberg's divorce attorney, Joel Kozel is expected to be at the family law courthouse in the Boston area on Wednesday morning as the Boston Globe petitions to have the court records unsealed.

As RadarOnline.com was the first to report exclusively, the Boston Globe will be in court for an emergency hearing "in an attempt to obtain a court order to unseal the sworn testimony given by Mitt Romney in a prior court case and to lift a gag order so that the parties can speak about Romney. Gloria Allred will be in court representing one of the parties in the case," a source close to the situation previously told us.

PHOTOS: Political Hotties

"Ms. Allred's client feels that the public needs to know about Governor Mitt Romney's role in this very important case. Governor Romney is running for President of the United States and this goes to a very important character issues," the insider revealed. It's unclear if Governor Romney will have lawyers present at the hearing on Wednesday morning.

The emergency hearing will take place at the Norfolk Probate & Family Court in Canton, Massachusetts, and Justice Jennifer Ulwick will oversee the proceedings which will begin at 9 a.m. EST.

PHOTOS: The Name Game – Celebs Who've Changed Their Names

Stemberg founded Staples and was the CEO for 16 years. According to the Huffington Post, "Bain Capital, the private equity firm that Romney helped found, was one of the early investors in Staples, and the former Massachusetts governor remained on the retailer's board for more than a decade. In claiming he helped create some 100,000 jobs in the private sector over the years, the Romney campaign has leaned heavily on the success of the office supplier, citing roughly 90,000 Staples jobs in their math."

Romney's pal was featured at the RNC last summer and addressed the delegates and said, "He (Mitt Romney) never looked at Staples as merely a financial investment. He saw the engine of prosperity it could become. Today Staples employs nearly 90,000 people. It has over 2,000 stores, over 50 distribution centers, and it is part of a competitive industry that helps entrepreneurs and small businesses get started on their own. You have to ask yourself, why would an administration that can't create any jobs demonize someone who did?"

PHOTOS: Stars’ Most Embarrassing Moments

According to a report from the National Employment Law Project Action Fund, Staples is one of the lowest wage employers in the country.

During a interview with PBS' Frontline earlier this year Stemberg said the first time he met Romney, "when you first walked in and saw Mitt, he looked like a guy who ought to be president of the United States. This guy, he looked perfect; he dressed perfect; he spoke perfectly. He asked the most poignant questions in a very, very nice way and didn't make you feel defensive and really drew the best or worst out of you. He was just really, really good."

PHOTOS: Stars Who Look Like Other Stars

Stemberg also said that Mitt Romney was no shrinking violet and wasn't concerned about his friend entering politics when he decided to run for governor of Massachusetts. "Nobody pushes Mitt Romney around. Having said that, if there's one person whom he will almost always defer to, it's Ann Romney," Stemberg told PBS.

Most polls indicate that the presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is a statistical dead heat.

Some Tech Industry Donors Warm Up to Mitt Romney

The two candidates, and their parties, have raised more money from technology executives and investors than the candidates and parties did in 2008. Altogether, Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney have campaigned here numerous times in the last year. And as the stakes for the industry have grown higher in Washington, both candidates have at least acknowledged some of its policy priorities, like immigration overhaul and lowering the corporate tax rate.

But although Mr. Obama is widely seen as a friend of the tech industry — and, with his party, has taken in far more contributions — the excitement associated with his campaign four years ago has diminished here, as it has elsewhere. Mr. Romney and the Republicans have made clear inroads.

By the end of August, Mr. Romney raised $2.04 million, compared with the $1.7 million that John McCain raised over his entire 2008 campaign. He has also tapped the pocketbooks of a few former Obama donors. One is Marc Andreessen, a prominent venture capitalist and Facebook investor who supported Mr. Romney’s failed primary bid in 2007, but went on to back Mr. Obama in 2008 with a $4,600 contribution. This year, he put in more than $100,000 for Mr. Romney.

Mr. Andreessen’s office declined to comment for this article, but he, like other tech industry executives, have said they find Mr. Romney’s business background appealing. Others say they are disappointed that the industry’s wish list in Washington remains unfulfilled, pointing, for example, to the unsuccessful effort to raise visa caps for immigrants with math and science degrees.

“This was a man who was elected in 2008 because he understood the power of the Internet,” said Mark Heesen, the president of the National Venture Capital Association, an industry group. “However, as much as the administration has loved the technology innovation agenda, they kind of walk away when you say you have to finance this innovation.”

Robert Nelsen, the managing director of Arch Ventures, based in Seattle, was on Mr. Obama’s national finance committee in 2008. He went to Grant Park in Chicago for the president’s victory party. This year, he contributed to the Romney campaign. He called it a protest vote.

“There needs to be some reaffirmation through words and deeds that engines of innovation are valued,” he said. “I feel like I need to send a message that everything is not O.K.”

The Republicans have been surprisingly adept at fund-raising from the technology industry. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign finance, Mr. Romney, his party and associated “super PACs” have raised $8.9 million, compared with $13 million raised by Mr. Obama and his party. Those figures include donations from venture capitalists, though the center says it is impossible to separate who among them invests principally in technology. The overall amount is considerably more than in 2008, partly because of the emergence of the super PACs.

Within that larger pie, the Democrats are winning the battle for individual donors. Mr. Obama raised $5 million from people in the industry, compared with Mr. Romney’s $2 million.

But the Republicans have been particularly successful at tapping Silicon Valley billionaires for related super PACs. Among them are Meg Whitman, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard and a former Republican candidate for governor; Howard Cox, advisory partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners; and Peter Thiel, another early Facebook investor, who this year gave more than $4 million to conservative super PACs, including to those that backed the failed primary bid of Ron Paul.

Still, taken together, the Democratic National Committee and the Obama campaign are clearly in the lead when it comes to tech donors. And there are lifelong Republicans here who find Mr. Romney unpalatable either because, in their view, he is socially conservative or because he is too closely aligned with sectors that the industry distances itself from.

“Obama will push the Silicon Valley agenda on immigration, renewables, technology and fairness with China in trade,” said Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist who invests in renewable energy and says he is a registered Republican. “Romney is pushing the oil and gas industry agenda.”

To mine that support, the Obama campaign has corralled entrepreneurs and executives under an umbrella organization called Tech4Obama, or T4O, bringing them together in small groups to meet with the president and open their wallets. Executives including Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook have held five-figure fund-raising dinners in their homes.

Obama-Romney Debate: Mitt Romney Stays Light On Detail

 

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spent much of his first presidential debate Wednesday walking back some of his core primary positions and highlighting similarities with President Barack Obama — from keeping bank regulations in place, bringing in more teachers, maintaining taxes on the wealthy, to making sure those with pre-existing conditions have health insurance.

But the president failed to respond effectively, drifting into his professorial demeanor and barely attempting to veil his annoyance with Romney. It wasn’t pretty, but Romney won, according to the general consensus among reporters and political operatives after the debate at the University of Denver.

Romney appeared more relaxed than Obama, who spent much of his time explaining policies he would likely rather be done selling by now. He hardly looked Romney in the eye during the debate.

There is one critical caveat, of course, in determining the winner of a debate: It’s difficult to know how the millions of voters, whose prisms are radically different than those of mainstream reporters, took in the debate. But, at minimum, Romney cleared the most critical bar, by appearing presidential.

Still, one issue continued to plague Romney: details. While he said he would end Obama programs, he was vague on how he would do so without eliminating a host of components he pledged to keep.

“At some point, you have to ask, is he keeping all these plans to replace [programs] secret because they’re too good?” Obama said. “Families are going benefit too much from them?”

The debate was the first of three presidential debates, this one with a focus on domestic policy. Obama and Romney each went into the debate attempting to tamp down expectations, insisting their opponent might have a bit of an edge and that they just hoped to do well.

Romney had more to prove, with Obama leading by large margins in swing states, according to a number of polls. Obama also has had more time to lay out his policy plans and present himself to the American people, while Romney is still being pressed for more specifics.

Romney did give one specific on taxes, making the promise that he will cut taxes only to the extent it doesn’t increase the deficit. Romney said he doesn’t want to cut taxes by $5 trillion, a widely reported figure, and put a strict limitation on how much he would actually lower taxes.

“If the tax plan he described were a tax plan I was asked to support, I’d say, ‘Absolutely not,’” Romney said. “I’m not asking for a $5 trillion tax cut. What I’ve said is I won’t put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. … I’ve got five boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it.”

Obama struck back.

“Now … he is saying that his big bold idea is ‘never mind.’ The fact is, if you are lowering the rates the way you describe, governor, it is not possible to come up with enough deductions or loopholes,” Obama said. “It is math. It is arithmetic.”

Romney insisted a few times that he would leave things as they were, or that he agreed with Obama. He said he wouldn’t cut funding for education and that he agrees more teachers are needed. Romney also said he and Obama agree that Social Security should not be changed for current seniors, effectively taking it off the table, although the two still attacked each other on the issue of Medicare. Romney also said the two men agree that young people should be kept on their parents’ insurance plans, even if he successfully repealed Obamacare.

He also said he supports another Obamacare component: requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions. Romney said he would continue that policy, a key part of Obamacare that isn’t actually part of his plan. Romney’s health care plan would require insurers to cover pre-existing conditions if they were switching from one insurer to another — but would do nothing for those trying to get insurance who do not currently have it.

But there still weren’t many details, something Obama pointed out. A few minutes after jabbing Romney on his math, Obama said the public can visit his website to see the specifics of his deficit-cutting plan, alluding to vagaries in Romney’s deficit reduction promises.

Romney pointed out, rightly, that Obama didn’t get behind the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction bill — which his vice presidential pick, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), voted against — even though he admitted he doesn’t support it either.

“The president should have grabbed that,” Romney said of deficit reduction, specifically citing the plan.

“Do you support it?” moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS countered.

“I have my own plan,” Romney responded. “I think the president should have grabbed it. If you have some adjustments, make it, take it to congress, go for it.”

Romney, when it came to bank regulation, played it both ways. He charged Dodd-Frank with leading to community bank closures, while also complaining that elements of it hadn’t been implemented fast enough. He praised some parts of it, criticized others, but declined to get specific.

Both candidates seemed a bit touchy, especially with the moderator. Obama kept talking at one point when Lehrer said his time was up, saying, “I had five seconds before you interrupted me.” Romney made even more of a fuss about the times, insisting on the first question that he get the last word, and refusing at several points to stop talking when asked. He also promised to cut funding to PBS, with an apology to Lehrer.

The debate ended with another attack from Obama over how Romney and Ryan would run the government. Romney promised to work with Democratic and Republican leaders “on day one,” or the day after his election, to work to collaborate, an idea Obama mocked.

“I think Governor Romney is going to have a busy first day because he’s also going to repeal Obamacare,” Obama said. “Which will not be very popular with Democrats as you’re sitting down with them.”

Ann Romney — I EAT Like a Celebrity

Ann Romney
I EAT Like a Celebrity

Ann Romney followed up her 'Tonight Show' appearance with dinner at LA landmark, The Ivy -- a restaurant known for 2 things: paparazzi and high-priced salads.

Mitt Romney's wife walked out of the Ivy last night with 4 friends and Secret Service agents in tow -- but she was tight-lipped when we asked the question everyone wants answered ... when you leave The Ivy: "What did you have for dinner?"

Fact is the most popular menu item is a grilled veggie salad ... which will run you anywhere from $27.75 to $37.75.

Take that 47-percenters.

For the record ... Ann's friends told us they THINK she had salad with fish.