More passive modes of personal data-gathering turn up in "The Circle" more subtly, as in a silver bracelet Mae is given at the health clinic, where a message is engraved in steel above the cabinets: "TO HEAL WE MUST KNOW.
Those two elements — detectors in physical stores; and a personal data-gathering SDK in mobile apps — come together to power Fidzup's retail-focused, location-based ad service which pushes ads to mobile users when they're near a partner store.
So while consumers might be okay with travel companies profiling them if it means that they end up having better holidays, all companies involved in this data-sharing chain are going to need to get good at explaining which bits of personal data they are gathering and why.
Google is back under investigation after gathering personal data while cameras on its cars took pictures for its UK Street View service.
In addition to recording calls and gathering personal data from the device, the malware is also able to receive commands via text message, explains Trend Micro threat analyst Mark Balanza.
If you argue this shows Facebook's only intent is gathering personal data, well, it's a business and securely absorbing and leveraging that data is what powers that business.
The goal is self and spouse improvement by gathering personal data that can reveal unseen patterns and bad habits, explains Asprey, who runs a blog chronicling his efforts to "hack" his body and mind.
The products listed include Google Trust, Google Hug, Google Bee and Google Bye, and each lampoons some aspect of the intersection of personal privacy and Google's data gathering tendencies.
What is more, there were indications in Washington last week that the Clinton administration, long an advocate of industry self-policing in matters of online privacy, is losing patience as the gathering of personal data grows more pervasive.
After more than two years of negotiations, the United States and the European Union said yesterday that they had reached tentative agreement on privacy laws governing the gathering of personal data about European consumers by American companies.
Other new ventures are meant to appeal to an audience believed to have grown indignant at the gathering of personal data for commercial purposes by industry giants like Google and Facebook.Omlet is one example.
