LOL! You must forgive the new generation, they've been raised in a totally -- as in not Cold War -- environment.
Yes, giving out personal information to anybody is not advisable, but rarely damaging. But when all of us can benefit from the collected data, only a few hard-core extremists are excluded -- and it's totally OK from a statistical POV.
Take for instance Google Trends. It's a collection of data correlating to what the conglomerate of humanity has been asking for many years. Yes, it's commercial use is obvious, but the "side effect" maybe not so.
Studying Google Trends for some key words (that I will give you when you pay me EUR100) you can easily see how the credit crises ten years ago could be predicted with almost a 100% certainty day for day -- but also how the present day economic will evolve with the same 100% certainty. Day for day, take it or leave it...
As usual: Learn from history if you want to predict the future -- Google can actually be your best tool. Ignore it if you want to repeat the last failure.
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