Brent Wallis <brent.wallis@gmail.com> wrote:
Buying a dead tree newspaper and reading it only gives the incumbents an "idea" as to what individuals read. Registering and paying for ones digital access means that an individuals name and address can be directly matched to what ones reads how often, when and how.
It does, and marketers could then use that information to customize their messages to the interests and preferences of each reader. The media outlet could also use this information to decide what to publish (and more worryingly, what not to publish, even if it would otherwise be for the public benefit). Political parties would be very interested: reportedly, they already maintain databases that collect personal details and likely voting preferences of individuals. If you've ever contacted a politician, you may already have an entry in the database, with a record of what your concerns or comments were and what the party officials think your voting inclinations are. All of this has been reported upon in public; it isn't wild speculation. There was a program on ABC radio several years ago as I recall. I am sure that drawing reasonable inferences from your media reading habits, given access to the data, would be seen by political parties as highly desirable, and by many citizens as unwelcome. There are other ways of exploting the data; I am only commenting on the obvious ones here.