Here is the second paragraph from What is Personal Information? in NV's privacy policy. (see http://www.newsvine.com/_tps/_about/privacy)

"Personal information does not include "aggregate" information. Aggregate information is data we collect about a group or category of products, services or users from which individual user identities have been removed. In other words, information about how you use a service may be collected and combined with information about how others use the same service, but no personal information will be included in the resulting data. Likewise, information about the products you purchase may be collected and combined with information about the products purchased by others. Aggregate data helps us understand trends and user needs so that we can better consider new products and services, and tailor existing products and services to user desires."

In my opinion this is psychological profiling and behavioral analysis ...  which is used to manipulate, influence and otherwise coerce consumers.

Here is one fairly accurate and comprehensive description us all to contemplate. Keep in mind that this technique is most common in criminal research investigations etc

"Psychological Profiles also known as Personality profiles can be deduced from any public information such as demographic data, internet search, media, opinions, blogs, social networking services, wikis, newsgroups, words, voice, pictures, videos, biological features, physical features, body language, forums, message boards including other methods such as statistical comparisons with peer groups.  Factors such as how people create various usernames, emails, IM Names, the way people write, the style and method of writing, the words they use, their pictures, videos, voice, biological features, physical features, body language, their comments etc also have relevance. This can also help understand and estimate behavior in different social situations. Abikas' proprietary system deduces Personality profiles from your input and any public information on the internet and media. There is no necessity to take written or verbal tests and no necessity of lengthy question and answers as in the Myers-Briggs tests. The more input you provide and the more information available about you the more comprehensive the personality profile. Personality profiling can help estimate behaviors, habits, personal traits and special talents."

The Corporate media is a major user of profiling and behavioral analysis. This is what big brother epitomizes.

Large corporations routinely apply behavioral research to screen out prospective and existing employees.

Most common is the applied logic that goes into video commercials ... the triggers that spawn a desired behavior. Google Analytics is a perfect example of mass produced profiling statistics ... used to alter consumers behavior and to screen out prospects.

The ultimate outcomes are cloaked in business speak but add up to exclusionary and inclusionary partitioning of consumers by age, religion, race, gender ... also height, weight and other physical characteristics that influence behavior.

see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_ethics

Next article in this series, see: What is Personal Information - Newsvine privacy policy continued :analysis

Empirical data is accumulated and shared among a myriad of entities as illustrated in the graph below.

Each circle in the graph represents a site that's been sent some of your personal information. This is an actual graph.

The plugin that produces this real-time data is called Collusion and is available for your Firefox and Chrome browsers .. and perhaps IE as well.