LogFAQs > #970923929

adjl posted...

Like most data, the usefulness isn't necessarily immediately apparent for this sort of information, but the whole concept of Big Data operates on the fundamental idea of "collect everything we can now so we're more likely to have what we need when we come up with use cases later." Data is collected knowing that much of it will likely be useless, but when somebody does start looking for a correlation between variables, having a large and varied data set increases the odds that they'll be able to find an answer.

The correlation part is the big key that most people miss. People will go "Why do they want to know A?", because A seems like pointless information (and it often is). But when they collect "B" in a poll next month and "C" in a poll later in the year, they can combine all three and know things about you that you have no idea you've accidentally revealed.

This is how AI algorithms work. The more info you feed them the more they can refine their interpretations.

Granted, the poll here is anonymous so in this case they aren't necessarily getting specific personal info (unless GameFAQs is keeping track of how everyone votes in each poll and is also selling that data while keeping the fact that they can do that secret, which is entirely possible), but even without specificity they're still gaining data on overall trends and assumptions.