Government Records

Aside from glossy brochures for military recruitment, we don't really think of the US Government as a cutting edge marketer. In at least one small area, that may change. Recreation.gov, a website designed to allow campers and hikers to make reservations with National Parks, is experimenting with "personal profiling". In particular, they want to use information from website visitors to make intelligent suggestions about parks and activities.

Assuming the good folks behind recreation.gov are successful gathering and interpreting behavioral data on citizens, one has to wonder whether or not the Department of Homeland Security will come knocking on their door. Or if the recration.gov data mining will be subject to the same Congressional scrutiny currently required in the Homeland Security spending bill just passed by the Senate...