When Companies Spy on You: Corporate Data Mining and Big Business (Spying, Surveillance, and Privacy in the 21st-Century)

Businesses used to contact buyers by placing advertisements in newspapers, magazines, and on television and radio. Now they monitor your online shopping and product browsing habits. This book looks as the ways businesses spy on patrons, examines the reasons the marketplace has changed, argues the pros and cons of keeping tabs on cyber shoppers, and outlines the advantages corporate mining gives to larger companies. This book looks as the ways businesses spy on patrons through monitoring of your online shopping and product browsing habits, examines the reasons the marketplace has changed, argues the pros and cons of keeping tabs on cyber shoppers, and outlines the advantages corporate mining gives to larger companies Data mining and big business -- The usefulness of data mining -- The disadvantages of data mining -- What the future holds -- Data mining timeline -- Glossary -- Further information -- Bibilography -- Index -- About the author