Target’s targeting of pregnant women
Our three-factor litmus test – context, permission, and accuracy – can be helpful in assessing whether any particular application might lead to customer backlash. Let’s return to the Target story.
Generally speaking, the technique of combining and analyzing multiple data sources to derive a new data point or piece of information isn’t inherently controversial. For instance, meteorologists regularly take readings of many variables (temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and so on) from multiple sources. That data is then combined and analyzed using an advanced analytics platform to derive weather predictions. Society greatly benefits from those forecasts, especially when they accurately predict the arrival of hurricanes, blizzards, and other adverse weather events. In such cases, we are grateful for the advance warning and aren’t particularly concerned about the intricacies of the underlying...