Mining the internet: the eighth wonder of the world

The Internet takes behavioral consumer research to a new level by providing the ability to passively and continuously monitor the complete online behavior of millions of consumers in an opt-in, privacy protected manner. Imagine the analytical possibilities if every site visited, every page viewed, content seen, transaction conducted ..... all of this granularity in behavior --- was continuously captured with explicit consumer permission for millions of consumers and privacy was protected. What unique insights could one gain into consumers' behavior, their interests, passions and lifestyles? What behavior could be predicted? What commercial applications would be possible.