This 100% untrue:
https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-interne...
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/10/exclusi...
These are only two links but let me assure you if you're interested google is full of articles from the 2008 election talking about how vital the internet and data was to the Obama strategy.
I very clearly remember these articles and many others at the time talking about the new "big data" strategies utilized in both 2008 and 2012. To me that is what makes this whole "we scraped data and stole the election for trump" narrative seem extremely suspicious.
Suspicious of what? Be more clear about what you're trying to say here please.
Because I hope it's not that people didn't complain enough when Obama did it, and therefore now nobody can? (aside from the fact that I did complain, because I complain about all advertising, but that's not the point)
On the other hand all journalists become more technical at the same time, so they have to digest some stuff from the past. Obviously even older news...
I guess it's fair to say that Techcrunch or ZDNet are not exactly great sources for usage of Big Data in politics...
This has changed a lot in the last few years though, which might explain why the news agency now have to work through (at least!) 10 years of tech news backlog. I'd definitely like to see coverage of these topic from 'traditional journalists' who then bring this stuff into context and link it with politics for instance. It's a little sad that we needed the politic right and their friends to bring these things to public attention.
> Were any laws broken here?
In Germany they would have broken it by that. At least here every website needed already 10 years ago not only Terms of Services but also a data privacy section/page. Such a page would be of no use if you could collect data from people before they even visit your website.