Why Obama Likes Facebook - Technology Review

"It's the apps, stupid"

"To get supporters even more engaged, the Obama and Romney campaign sites encourage supporters to download apps, which they can do directly on Facebook or when they log in to the campaign sites with their Facebook account. Obama's app goes further than Romney's; for example, through the president's app, which has been downloaded by 150,000 people, the campaign can access the birth dates, locations, shared photos, and "likes" of millions of Facebook "friends" of those supporters. (The friends could avoid this by changing their privacy settings in Facebook, but the default settings make this possible, and, according to a Consumer Reports survey, almost two-thirds of Facebook users do not change such settings.)"

Why Obama Likes Facebook - Technology Review