Target knows when you’ve been naughty; knows when you’ve been nice

The New York Times uncovers the somewhat creepy tactics of Target(ed) Marketing:

As Pole's computers crawled through the data, he was able to identify about 25 products that, when analyzed together, allowed him to assign each shopper a "pregnancy prediction" score. More important, he could also estimate her due date to within a small window, so Target could send coupons timed to very specific stages of her pregnancy.

Shit.

Using data to predict a woman's pregnancy, Target realized soon after Pole perfected his model, could be a public-relations disaster.

No shit.

At which point someone asked an important question: How are women going to react when they figure out how much Target knows?

"If we send someone a catalog and say, 'Congratulations on your first child!' and they've never told us they're pregnant, that's going to make some people uncomfortable," Pole told me. "We are very conservative about compliance with all privacy laws. But even if you're following the law, you can do things where people get queasy."

Oh shit.

For decades, Target has collected vast amounts of data on every person who regularly walks into one of its stores. Whenever possible, Target assigns each shopper a unique code — known internally as the Guest ID number — that keeps tabs on everything they buy.

Holy shit.

Check out the Forbes summary if you don't want to read the nine page article in the Times.