New details have been revealed on the efforts by Democrats and Republicans to mine American voters’ personal data to influence the outcome of next month’s election. The New York Times reports the Obama and Romney campaigns are purchasing an unprecedented amount of personal information from private companies and using it to encourage or convince targeted voters to head to the polls. The information collected includes everything from religious ties, interest in pornographic sites, product preferences, financial status, social media affiliations and whether a voter has gay friends. That information is then used to shape the approach of unsolicited phone calls from campaign staffers to the voters, based on how they have been analyzed. Some voters will even be pushed to vote by being publicly “shamed,” when the campaign publicly divulges how frequently they and their neighbors have previously voted in the hopes that public disclosure will spur them to action.