Neuropolitics: Where campaigns try to read your mind

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).

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".

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

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.