US political campaigns will run more digital ads this year than ever. Here’s how they’ll find voters

A 3D-printed Facebook Like symbol is seen in front of a display of binary digits in this illustration taken, March 18, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

There was plenty of outrage to go around last week following revelations that Facebook data on some 50 million users were used to allegedly build profiles of voters, serve them tailor-made ads and try to help President Donald Trump get elected. 

While the backlash was fierce against Cambridge Analytica, the firm accused of deploying the ill-gotten data, some of the discussion missed the point. The trove of data on which the firm relied, providing everything from a user's relationship status to their education history, is increasingly being used by political campaigns and candidates to target voters.