As computers, databases and networks come to intermediate almost every aspect of modern human life, the volume of electronic breadcrumbs generated from our daily activities and transactions has exploded. Academic researchers, marketers, governments, and social scientists are all clamoring to record, save and crunch all that information to gain new insights in order to move society, as well as their own interests, forward.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=105609