2016's campaign technology takes online tracking to new level

Presidential campaigns this time around have a new technological ace in the hole -- you. Building off two decades of digital wizardry, the campaigns are getting ready to monitor and analyze most of what you do online instantaneously. And if you forward certain political emails to your Aunt Maggie in Iowa or your old college roommate in Ohio, they'll reward you for doing it.

The technology will no doubt make it easier for campaigns to personalize their messages and respond in seconds, but it will also test the will and patience of privacy advocates who might feel a little itchy about campaigns looking over everyone's shoulders in real time. "Four years in the digital age is like a generation in the industrial age, so whatever data mining they did four years ago will look like an antique now," said Andrew Rasiej, founder of New York-based Personal Democracy Media, which tracks the intersection of technology and politics.