To answer the question "Is what we're doing with this data really data science?", we first must ask the question "What is science?". Technology and process aside, science is first and foremost the pursuit of facts and truth. If your job or hobby is primarily concerned with promoting things like: politics, marketing, social justice, or profit at the expense of facts and truth, then one is really not a scientist and the endeavor itself can't be called data science.

My opinion about "data scientists" who work for political or marketing firms is the same as my opinion about a "nutritionist" who works on staff for McDonalds.