mixed bag of mail

i once heard that the fbi can access your video rental files and use the titles to profile you.   marketing agencies try to do it too. 

the republican party has a database that tracks certain demographics about you and determine what type of message will best reach you – or if you’re unreachable – not waste resources on trying.    a friend of mine is a thirty-something, single female, who lives alone in newton and subscribes to national geographic.   based on these demographics, the republican database determined that she was likely to be liberal.  of course, she was also head of the young republicans group in the boston area, so she quickly went inside the database and corrected the assumption. 

anyway, i’ve always wondered how the government/a political party/a marketing agency would would “profile” me based on some of my movie/book/etc purchases. 

i was thinking about this tonight because of the selection of mail i received today.   i got a barney’s catalog, a bass pro flyer, an ll bean catalog, and a junior league newletter.  it just struck me as a weird mix of mail….i thought it was kind of humorous to see a barney’s catalog next to the bass pro flyer.