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Nielsen's stock in trade has always been statistics, not data
mining. While I obviously can't predict that they won't start doing
the latter, I think it's unlikely, as content providers still rely
heavily on the same types of reports they have always produced.<br>
<br>
I have participated in a Nielsen surveys in the past. The first was
about 15 years ago, and the second about a year ago. I have so far
not seen any tangible change in intrusiveness (telemarketing, junk
mail, online advertising) as a result of either. Here's a link to
Nielsen's privacy policy:<br>
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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/privacy-policy/privacy-policy-tv-all.html">http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/privacy-policy/privacy-policy-tv-all.html</a><br>
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which says that they only use data in aggregate to produce
statistical reports. About the only somewhat annoying thing is
section "
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E. Do you provide my personal identifying information to anyone?"
which says that they do give personally identifyable info to other
companies, who are contractually obligated not to use it for
business purposes.<br>
<br>
While it may seem that the reason they ask so much personal
information is so that they can market directly to you, I really
don't believe that is the case here. It's being done so that they
can more accurately say things like, "Males aged 35-40 with a median
income of $40K in urban regions like to watch Family Guy from
7:00-7:30 PM on Tuesdays". They're not selling data about you,
they're selling data about people like you. Being part of their
reports is a probably one of the more significant ways to influence
the behavior of content providers.<br>
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