Richard M. Smith on Wasted Data-Mining

ChannelSeven has an interview with Privacy Consultant Richard M. Smith, who’s now semi-retired. Among other topics, he talks about how much data-mining is actually wasted by marketers:

“Web sites and database companies collect an amazing amount of data that isn’t used. One offline example is the shopper loyalty card. A ton of data is collected there, but very little of that information is actually used. It’s a bizarre human characteristic, sort of a packrat mentality. We collect it and then it sits around.”

Smith also talks about when he thinks the type of intrusive marketing technologies used in the movie Minority Report will become reality (“more like ten years away than 50 years away”). He believes that most spams don’t originate from e-mail list selling (“I think it’s a myth that if you give your e-mail address to one company a thousand companies get it”) but from Website spiders and e-mail harvester programs.

One Reply to “Richard M. Smith on Wasted Data-Mining”

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