A data analytics firm used GPS pings to track the movements of 78% of Americans and assign them "COVID-19 decree violation" scores based on their level of lockdown compliance. The scores were then used to target political advertising messages and influence the outcome of elections

How "obedient" were you during the pandemic? Did you leave your home more often than your neighbors when lockdowns were in full force? If you think no one was paying attention to your whereabouts, think again.

PredictWise, a voter analytics firm, tracked -- and continues to track -- more than 260 million Americans (that's 78% of the U.S. population^[i]), collecting data about your opinions, attitudes and behaviors, including your location and media consumption.^[ii]

PredictWise does this through a mix of surveys and telemetry data, which is "passively sourced cellphone data."^[iii] In other words, when you're out-and-about with your cellphone, companies like PredictWise are watching your every move. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, it analyzed about 2 billion GPS (global positioning system) pings, gaining "real-time, ultra-granular locations patterns."^[iv]

What did it do with this highly sensitive data? It assigned users "Covid-19 decree violation" scores, which were in turn used to target political marketing messages.

What Was Your COVID-19 Decree Violation Score?

PredictWise was founded in 2017 by Tobias Kontizer, who previously worked with Facebook Research, and Microsoft Research economist David Rothschild.^[v] The firm surveilled cellphone users' whereabouts, then harvested data about their locations and media usage to create scores based on surveys and "more than 30 million behavioral data points."

"The end result is a continuous score for each cluster ranging from 0 to 100 for every American represented on the file," PredictWise noted in its 2022 white paper.^[vi] But that's not all. During COVID-19, a "once-in-a-lifetime pandemic," PredictWise pounced to surveil and categorize Americans based on their level of compliance with lockdowns, then used the data to influence political elections.

"It doesn't take a data scientist to know that Covid-19 was going to play a major role in the 2020 election," PredictWise wrote, adding:^[vii]

"PredictWise understood that there were potential pockets of voters to target with Covid-19 messaging and turned high-dimensional data covering over 100 million Americans into measures of adherence to Covid-19 restrictions during deep lockdown.

PredictWise targeted Republicans who scored high on our measure of Covid-19 decree violation (folks who were on the go more often than their neighbors) and Republicans who scored low on our measure of Covid-19 decree violation (folks who mostly or always stayed at home) in the swing state, Ohio, and asked survey questions. This measure derived from ground truth, real-time, ultra-granular locations patterns that analyzed nearly 2 billion GPS pings for this study."

The tracking paid off, allowing PredictWise to determine "compliant" Republicans who stayed home more often were more concerned about COVID-19 and had "persuadability" nearly as high as Democrats. Further, they stated, "Republican non-movers over the age of 65 were more concerned about Covid-19 than Democrats."

PredictWise then boasts that it used this tracking data to "open up just over 40,000 persuasion targets that normally would have fallen off" in support of Mark Kelly, who was running for Senator at the time and ultimately got elected. This allowed them to "give the right message to the right voter at the right time."^[viii]

Even Unregistered Voters Are Being Targeted

Included in PredictWise's surveillance are more than 50 million unregistered voters. Their data is obtained via credit files and "portal registration data," for which they give the example of retail store Crate&Barrel. So when you shop or apply for credit, your data may be accessible by tracking firms like PredictWise.

The company then claimed that, using its machine learning models, it could predict the political party of unregistered voters and use the data to "turnout your electorate."^[ix] Ultimately, "obedient, conservative-minded citizens during Covid lockdowns were targeted by progressive political campaigns," Convention of States Action explained. "Compliance was equal to control and ultimately a gateway to more power."^[x] It continued:^[xi]

"While you, the reader, may be wondering if PredictWise tracked your personal data, the answer is more than likely … yes … This breach of data collection is astonishing and out of control. While this isn't an issue stirred directly by the federal government, it's an issue that still stems back to power, control, and the need for effective changes in Washington.

But no doubt, those in Washington that are or will be running political campaigns when they're up for reelection will want all the data they can get on voters in their districts. So the privacy invasion will go on because it's supported by the establishment that needs pinpoint analytics in order to win."

What Does This Mean for Your Sovereignty in the Future?

Apparently, the pandemic presented the perfect opportunity for PredictWise to enter the political arena. "In 2020, PredictWise made its first push into the political landscape serving data to campaigns both large and small – from the Cupertino school levy and Ohio state senate campaigns to the Democratic National Committees, Democratic state parties, federal candidates, national progressive organizations, and Super PACs," it stated.^[xii] What will be its next push?

Data about Americans' locations could easily be used for more nefarious purposes than even influencing political beliefs, like policing your whereabouts, enforcing lockdown rules in the event of a future pandemic and even forcibly restricting your movement. It would also be simple to target Americans who violate lockdowns and impose penalties and punishments if they don't comply.

Jeremy Hunt, Britain's new chancellor of the Exchequer, already called for the use of GPS tracking technology to ensure people were obeying COVID-19 quarantine measures.^[xiii] Scott Gotleib, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, also suggested in a March 2020 "Road Map to Reopening" the country, "Home isolation can be enforced using technology such as GPS tracking on cell phone apps."^[xiv]

Please continue to follow GreenMedInfo.com for the latest news on the ongoing large-scale data harvesting that's occurring in our daily lives. Your future sovereignty depends on it.

References

[i] Reclaim the Net October 25, 2022 https://reclaimthenet.org/us-analytics-firm-covid-19-decree-violation-scores/

[ii] PredictWise, White Paper https://www.predictwise.com/whitepaper

[iii] PredictWise, White Paper https://www.predictwise.com/whitepaper

[iv] Reclaim the Net October 25, 2022 https://reclaimthenet.org/us-analytics-firm-covid-19-decree-violation-scores/

[v] Children's Health Defense October 26, 2022 https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/americans-harvested-cellphone-data-covid-lockdowns/

[vi] PredictWise, White Paper https://www.predictwise.com/whitepaper

[vii] PredictWise, White Paper https://www.predictwise.com/whitepaper

[viii] PredictWise, White Paper https://www.predictwise.com/whitepaper

[ix] PredictWise, White Paper https://www.predictwise.com/whitepaper

[x] Convention of States Action October 27, 2022 https://conventionofstates.com/news/whats-your-lockdown-violation-score-political-campaigns-tracked-your-pandemic-obedience

[xi] Convention of States Action October 27, 2022 https://conventionofstates.com/news/whats-your-lockdown-violation-score-political-campaigns-tracked-your-pandemic-obedience

[xii] PredictWise, White Paper https://www.predictwise.com/whitepaper

[xiii] ZeroHedge October 26, 2022 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-citizens-were-tracked-secret-covid-decree-violation-scores

[xiv] American Enterprise Institute March 29, 2020 https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/national-coronavirus-response-a-road-map-to-reopening/