All based on shopping trends. They tracked purchases and assumed she was expecting. They sent a baby catalog to her house and surprised her dad. Good read. Not just about their story but also about how to use statistics to persuade a potential shopper without making them feel "spied" upon, even though they were.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

I say it is smart business. Very similar to Google Ads.

our greatest success of the last century has been the rise of globalization. no other technology has made this more possible then the internet. the problem with the internet is that it makes your data available without you even realizing its out there.

we pride ourselves on our secrecy, yet post all our private information on facebook for everyone to see. we see talk of identity thief and shred our paper, but we give our information to any online website that asks for it. youd be surprised on the amount of data out there that companies and anyone else can get a hold of, and its not even fully data mined but given freely. as a society we experience a disconnect when we do something from our own home, a false sense of security and safety. we believe we cannot be hurt by what we do in private and we believe our actions at home are private and safe.

there can be no privacy in a global world; a global world requires the removal of barriers. everything you do can be tracked, everything that is out there can be used against you, everything out there never disappears! businesses often look at facebook pages to see what employees are up to, they look at them before hiring people. laws can be skimmed, polices bent, belief misdirected. it used to sound like a bunch of crazies spouting nonsense but it has become the reality of today. the worst part is we dont even realize what it is we have surrendered.

be aware of it.

The Patriots (La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo) have been doing this for years now. You can't stop them.