The ads appear to be geared towards collecting potential voter email addresses and directing people to questionable news sites. The emails people receive after signing up are either miracle health cures, secret new ways to boost your income or scary news about savings and the latest socialist coming to take them.
While not everything these sites post is false , their headlines and content seem to serve a political agenda.
What is markedly different about these sites we've uncovered is they are run by marketing firms, groups that work for political campaigns and other businesses.
Ascension Marketing Group was, according to business records, founded by Stefan Gleason, an active political donor, who has contributed the maximum amount allowed by an individual to at least three Republican candidates this year alone.
Once a company has your email address or any personal information that can identify you online, it can continue to target you again and again.
For instance, if a company knows you're a bit of a swing voter and that you care a lot about animal rights or gun laws, with your email address, it can target custom ads at you about why a particular candidate or political party is the best when it comes to animal rights or the worst when it comes to gun laws.
With this approach, campaigns and marketers can more wisely spend their money, only focusing on those who've engaged with their content before or who seem susceptible to changing their minds in the future.
Either way, it looks like political operatives masquerading as news sites and marketing firms amassing the email addresses of potential voters are signs of things to come for the 2020 election.
Original article