Data Mining Fast Food Link

How is this stuff a surprise to anyone? Startups slurp at the great teat of the social-graph and make a business off of people self identifying their most damning weaknesses.1 Who's surprised that all of this data can be connected to form a highly detailed profile of an individual's lifestyle? There should also be no surprises when the aggregated data is misinterpreted in a way that is dangerous or costly to the consumer.

I do think that Mr. Pledge has vested interest in suggesting that his company is so good at mining data that he himself is afraid of what they can learn.

  1. Expect fewer Tweets from me about the beers I enjoy. My Twitter stream probably presents me in an unflattering way to my insurers. ↩