Target broke through to a new level of customer tracking with the help of statistical genius Andrew Pole, according to a New York Times Magazine cover story by Charles Duhigg.
Pole identified 25 products, including unscented lotion and vitamins, that when purchased together indicate that a women is likely pregnant. The value of this information was that Target—before anyone else—could send coupons to the pregnant woman at an expensive and habit-forming period of her life.
Plugged into Target's customer tracking technology, Pole's formula was a beast. Once it even exposed a teen girl's pregnancy, according to Duhigg:
[A] man walked into a Target outside Minneapolis and demanded to see the manager. He was clutching coupons that had been sent to his daughter, and he was angry, according to an employee who participated in the conversation.
“My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?”
The manager didn’t have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the man’s daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.
On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”
Did you know stores have that technology? For more information and Target's response, head over to the NYT.
Please do not go on about your privacy, that is all over as your life will become completely transparent.
Contact 23andme and get your genome scanned and an even better grade of support will be extended to you. Please do not give way to fear and panic, help is on the way.
1984 was 28 years ago, that is History and was an allegory of life in 1948 Britain as reactionary George Orwell, former colonial policeman protested the Independence of India, the decline of the British Empire and the end of the 18th Century. The book is a 65 year old diatribe from a retired Indian beating police officer who hated postwar UK austerity and expanding social spending.
Experts believe this is the first case of a regular person apologizing to a grunt working for peanuts in almost 40 years. There have been millions of customers that have been wrong and impolite in that time period and wrong at a higher rate than when people were usually polite, but this is the first documented case of an actual apology since the late 60's.
Anyone who goes over their quota for potato chips will be required to buy broccoli instead. Republicans will decry this a hidden tax and a violation of constitutional rights.
Despite the families pleas that it wasn't all for her, Melrose insisted it was "her duty to partake of a sensible diet and that failure to do so breached it's Terms & Conditions". A spokesman said "If a policy holder engages in dangerous sports that are potentially life threatening then they must inform us. The diet she had over a prolonged period was her cause of death so is deemed as life threatening in the same way. We can prove it was her that consumed most of the food by the quantities and mostly at lunchtimes at the store across the street from where she worked where she was a well known customer".
the case continues.