[knz]

Isn't the surprise of many that this was used for political purposes in a way that significantly differs from the expected pattern (micro targeting vs generic political advertising)?

I suspect most people on HN are aware of how naive much of the public are about the implications of technology.

[xienze]

> Isn't the surprise of many that this was used for political purposes in a way that significantly differs from the expected pattern (micro targeting vs generic political advertising)?

Also not a surprise, it was well-known that the 2012 Obama campaign used targeted advertising and the media at the time raved about this brilliant use of an emerging technology. No one at the time saw fit to question them or Facebook. Let's all just be intellectually honest here: people only care because Trump made effective use of social media.

[knz]

> Let's all just be intellectually honest here: people only care because Trump made effective use of social media.

I'm not sure that's accurate either in the context of how the Trump campaign used this data and the investigation into the Trump campaign. The issue isn't that Trump used social media, it's how they used it and who they worked with (Roger Stone and the WikiLeaks/DNC hack angle for example).