Just a few days ago I released my novel The Social Event. In it I speculate what might happen if a corporation amassed so much data that they could anticipate what you might do based on specific, targeted social media stimuli. And then, right on cue, this hits the press in the NY Times and other news agencies:

Facebook to Let Users Alter Their Ad Profiles

Sounds like good news, right? Well, sure, it is. But for who?

For the consumer/user like you and me it's an opportunity to tailor your spam feed so at least your being slammed by ads about things you are somewhat remotely interested in. And, if your creative with it, constant tweaking could turn it into an automated consumer products research tool whereby a custom stream of ads about things you're thinking of buying swims by making you aware of some of your potential options. Kind of a couch potatoe's window shopping spree.

But wait! There's more!

As with all things free on the net, you never get something for nothing, never. As you fine tune your ad preferences you reveal a much more higher resolution picture of yourself. This is totally awesome for those trying to figure out who you are, what you're about and what you're likely to do next. Now me, I'm lazy, so if someone out there knows what I want before I do because they aggregated my high-resolution data with ten thousand others who's profiles match mine, and algorithmically/statistically they can anticipate my future needs, with even a 75% accuracy, well heck, that's calories I don't have to burn comming to a conclusion they knew I'd reach anyway. Creepy, huh?

You can opt out of all this. But why would you? First, it's a total pain in the ass to do it (what? you thought they'd make it user friendly?). Second, it's like having a personal valet how knows everything about you, everything.  Even when you need personal hygiene products - because the big-box drug store app used your GPS to log the frequency with which you visited the hygiene products aisle, merged that data with products purchased data and sold it to the giant big-data aggregater in the sky.

Don't fight it. Use it. Unless you are a cave dwelling Luddite, there will be a data trail. Even the cash-only cave-dwellers are tracked - there are cameras, pavement censors and other "analog" data logging devices everywhere.  Might as well use it to your advantage. Tailor it to help you market your next product. See what these marketing geniuses pair with your book and target your book to people using those products.

But beware.

Read and understand what comes at you. You never know, there might be a larger presence out there trying to convince you of things you might not otherwise would have thought of on your own. Like in The Social Event.

I'm just say'n...