India Post Also Wants to Keep Some of Your Data, Is That Such a Big Problem?

By Harshil Karia • May 29, 2008

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Saw a relatively sensational Title on LiveMint today – “Mapping Your Life”. Found it quite interesting but it basically spoke about the fact that the Indian Post is developing a directory that maps where you live, who you live with, how long you’ve been living there, what car you drive and your last five addresses.

“Mapping your Life” has a negative connotation, in a sense, it asks you to be aware. Im not sure that kind of a thought is apt. My car company knows where I live and what kind of car I drive. Multiple databases have a fix on my locations. Plenty of marketers do not know who I live with but then that information is not of too much value unless the information can tell a marketer who I live with and what purchase decisions do I make for my family/ friends.

Compare this to the data Google or Facebook has access to. Google knows what im searching for, what im clicking through to, what im buying (through the ads I click on), it can tell what interests me, it can thorough scan my email if it wants etc. So the dangers with a company such as Google are hgher. Facebook also knows a lot about me, who im connected to, who I trust, what my social preferences are etc.

So in a sense, the Indian Post mapping my life is really not much of a problem at all. Incidentally, data they say is the new Gold and mining for data (the reams of it) and making sense out of it is almost like digging for gold.

There has been an ongoing tussle between Google and Facebook with respect to their sharing of data.

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Categories: Advertising
Tags: data mining, facebook, google, india post

About the Author

Harshil Karia

I try and maximize my learnings and this is my humble attempt at sharing a part of whatever little i tend to observe. Welcome to a space that i hope will be at least a partial extension of me!