The government has nothing on supermarkets when it comes to keeping to tabs on people.
You won't find the next generation of gold prospectors getting their hands dirty. Nope, you'll see them behind a computer mining data. In the 21st Century, data is the new oil and all you need to do is drill into the right databases to find out what you need. I point this out having just trawled through my census form and realised what a pointless, expensive waste of time it is. And that's before I decide whether my religion is Jedi or not. I predict now that this is the last one we'll do, certainly on paper, this way. Especially given that ministers could simply call up Tesco to get pretty well all the answers they need within hours. Here's why. Tesco has an astonishing databank built up through its Clubcard reward scheme. The data from card swipes is analysed by a company it owns called Dunnhumby. Dunnhumby's website says: "We have access to the shopping behaviour of 13 million households. This helps manufacturers to understand the purchase decisions and habits of customers better than anyone else." The raw data alone has no value. It's how you crunch it and this lot are so good at it they can sell it on to other firms. What it means is that Tesco knows exactly where its stores need to be located and doesn't fill its shelves with stuff it can't sell. That's the secret of their profits. It also segregates communities. The really poor areas are never going to get sun dried tomatoes. Cigarette companies work in a similar way to get round the ban on advertising. Another company, Experian, has financial and location data sown up. This company offers a free credit rating services and even knows about our web viewing habits. So deep is Experian's reach it was able to map exactly how and where the spending cuts would hit and even the health of the nation. But you don't need to drill deep to find out about people. Wired did a great stunt recently in which they did a basic trawl of personal details openly available and made some shocking discoveries. Chris Smith - More... http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/03/data-government-tesco-census _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
