ohduran probably means that there is no a priori logical reason for the two to go together. In theory they could be separated. However, it is far too enticing of a profit opportunity to use aggregated data if one has it en masse to sell personalized data.
I happen to disagree; almost any for-profit business is going to be doing some sort of aggregated usage data. I mean at the most basic level they've got to be tracking the number of customers they have. That doesn't mean all for-profit businesses ultimately devolve into data selling businesses.
Although perhaps ohduran is advancing a more nuanced argument. In particular perhaps the more detailed usage data you track, the more likely the siren call of selling that data is to be attractive. In order to compete with Google on search quality, perhaps you do need sufficiently detailed usage data that the call becomes irresistible.
I'm still not convinced that's true, but I could see how it plays out.
Oh wow, perhaps I was too terse and left too much room for interpretation. I meant that there is no way for a for-profit company to eventually sell personalized segment data once it has it, even if there were initial promises not to do so.
In that regard, the "siren call", as dwohnitmok says, it's a very appropriate way of encapsulating what I meant. You can be bold and not do it, but as soon as you have investors, they are going to demand it , pressure you into doing it, and if you do not comply replace you with someone who will not be sitting in a potentially profitable line of business and do nothing.
That's not really true. Google & Facebook only sell targeting for a reason: it's more profitable than selling the data itself. Why would you sell the user data you worked so hard to collect when you can sell targeting on it again and again? It's actually in Google & Facebook's interest that no one except them have data on you.
