You are correct that the data is not being scrubbed – at least not since Y2K. The emphasis is not on the quality of the data, but the quantity available for data mining.

I know you will reasonably respond that the value of the data mining is only worth the quality of the data stored. However, as our frind over at
The Long Tail will attest, the sheer volume of data has driven its value to zero. Why spend resources cleaning up free data?

- Hank Heath

Taken a look at your credit reports recently?

One of mine is nice enough to list my places of employment… the most recent/current being a employer I left in 1979 (indicating that I have not been employed since 1979… ducky!).

Let’s see… how do we spell D-A-T-A Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y?

An excellent read on the very ugly reality is Robert O’Harrow’s “No Place to Hide”

- David