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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

They know how you browse the internet, your favorite TV shows and where you shop and travel.

Data collected by internet and media companies is a powerful tool, and the big mergers planned by AT&T with Time Warner and Verizon with Yahoo offer those firms more data that can be used to target consumers with content and advertising [phys.org].

Privacy advocates say the prospect of firms using all that online and offline data without safeguards could be alarming.

"Twenty-first century media is all about the ability to gather information on a single individual regardless of where they are—whether they are using mobile phone or watching TV or in a grocery store," said Jeffrey Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy rights group.

The $85 billion deal unveiled Saturday would combine AT&T, one of the largest mobile telecom and residential internet operators, with Time Warner, the media-entertainment giant with powerful brands including the Warner Bros. studio, HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network and a major online game studio.

Expect a raft of new tech job openings with "experience with Big Data" in the descriptions, to help the new mega companies mine it properly.

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