A little too much information

I recently read an article about the election, that focused on voters' lives.  It demonstrated how political figures may have too much information on people's lives.  

"Strategists affiliated with the Obama and Romney campaigns say they have access to information about the personal lives of voters at a scale never before imagined. And they are using that data to try to influence voting habits".

Are candidates so worried about getting votes that they are looking into people's personal lives to try to influence them?  This seems like a violation of privacy.  They even know things about people that their friends might not even know:

"The callers [have] access to details like whether voters may have visited pornography Web sites, have homes in foreclosure, are more prone to drink Michelob Ultra than Corona or have gay friends or enjoy expensive vacations".

I would not want strangers to know these things about me and would be offended that someone was working that hard just to get my vote.  Although the campaign managers say that they are trying to protect privacy, I would feel uncomfortable if they knew this information.

I applaud the candidates for trying this hard to get more votes, but at what cost?  Is it worth confidentiality?  Presidents are supposed to do their best to protect the citizens of the United States, but they are allowing members of their campaign to seek personal information about voters so they can sway them.  This almost seems like desperation.

Do you think that getting this personal information from voters is a violation of privacy?  Would you want people to know certain information about you?  Feel free to leave comments below.