[WarriorDiplomat]

Google and others have been doing something similar for years with their analytics programs and the sale of this data to the business world....those annoying little ads that show up pertaining to a subject you have recently researched is not by accident

Remember when twitter accounts during GW Bush era were being archived at the library of Congress for certain purposes??

Yes it absolutely can be abused and is no doubt.....social engineering and political science are one and the same so would it be a surprise if this data is not already being used to develop political strategy? when a salesman can read your response to his pitch and acts on it it's manipulation....when a sociopath forms his personality to get what he/she wants from whomever it is manipulation.....when a politician talks one game and doesn't mean a word of any of it and follows through on some things IOT do other things without notice to keep promises to benefactors, it is also manipulation....when an analytic program takes your random searches for items then attaches ads to every webpage of these great deals of something you have shown interest in....unless you are grateful then the other factor is companies pay for this data from a SEO-Search Engine Optimization type outfit.