Knowing me, knowing you
- Article 37 of 77
- Information Age, May 2002
Psychological profiling: it works in murder hunts. Can it expose the traits of web site users?
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One of the things that the company is working on now is being able to put its profiles into a more easily understandable form. “Making it visceral is quite a challenge.” Moreover, he says, as with any psychological work, there are always going to be inaccuracies. “We're aware that in everything we do, there is error. Error in eliciting information, error in building the profile, error in classification, error in matching. So each process is error prone. One of our goals is to minimise error and minimise the consequences of error.”
Although online psychological profiling is in its infancy, it is starting to produce useful results for its customers. But as it becomes more widespread, how will customers react to the idea that their behaviour is being monitored and businesses are building up 'mental' pictures of the type of person they are – judgements that will affect what products and services they are offered?
Psychological profiling may simply be too precise for consumer comfort.
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