[Free Beacon] Experts in Silicon Valley's tech industry said it was difficult watching Democrats vilify Facebook tracking tools knowing full well most of them are using the very tools they criticized to aid their reelection efforts.Democrats took sharp aim at Facebook during testimony this week by CEO Mark Zuckerberg for tracking user activity.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.) warned during the first day of hearings that "none of us are going to have any privacy anymore" because of Facebook and complained that discussing his love of chocolate on the site led to chocolate ads. Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) said users should be notified of "what information Facebook is collecting, who they are sending it to, and whether they asked me in advance my permission to do that."
It was quickly pointed out by Mike Millican, a longtime digital strategist for Republican campaigns, that both the Democratic senators and most of their colleagues are actively employing the Facebook tracking devices they were criticizing.
Hidden on the campaign websites of both Nelson and Durbin is something called a Facebook pixel, a device in a website's code that allows campaigns advertising on Facebook to track how many people are navigating to the website from Facebook and what they are doing once they get there. The campaigns are then able to create audiences and retarget them based on what worked before.