It’s just over two years since the New York Times shocked half the free world with their article How Companies Learn Your Secrets – in particular in how they detailed that Target was aware of a teenage girl’s pregnancy prior to her father; in fact it was ultimately Target’s marketing to the girl which tipped him off to his daughter’s changing circumstances. So it’s illuminating that culture and expectations have swung so far, so quickly, that a headline titled How One Woman Hid Her Pregnancy from Big Data is of general interest, and most people actually realize what it means, and why it is worthy of a headline.
What’s even more noteworthy is the lengths that a woman must go to, to ensure she remains ‘off the grid’ as far as her pregnancy is concerned, and the logistic difficulty of doing it while still appearing to be a normal human that is not a drug dealer, money launderer, or terrorist.
The article is definitely interesting, and though provoking. I made it two minutes into the video before abandoning – the article will probably give you the best return on your time.
Also if you are a retailer, and you don’t know that much about your customers (for example when they are pregnant) it may give you a sense of how much your competitors do know about your customers, and what you are up against.