"Scaping"?

Can it be done here?? I thought this was an interesting article....I got it from my food board and decided to share. Any thoughts?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...DDLETopStories

Wow, that was very interesting. Thanks for sharing that link.

I have to say that I've never considered what I write online to be private or protected information. I do regard the PL as a secure place and certainly hope that is the case. I didn't realize how widespread and professional the whole business of data mining is though, because I've never really thought about it much before. But I guess it's not surprising in this day and age, and one could argue that it makes a lot of sense for companies to monitor and use this data. It is out there in the public domain after all.
Still, this article serves as a reminder to consider just what you share online.

Ohh, scraping. It probably could be done, BUT if you're using google, a gmail account, or chrome you shouldn't be too concerned with your information being scraped and sold off of here. Google's already doing it for you.

Your activities are recorded and sold/used in numerous ways.

We talked to a company yesterday that searches patient medical records to find people for clinical trials for drug companies. I still don't understand how this is legal.

And if you think the PL is private, think again. All it means is you have to pay to access it. I doubt "scrapers" do that - but info in there shouldn't be considered "private" so much as ... not easily available publicly.

I find it ironic; bloggers trying to hard to get their blogs to be read and noticed while thousands of people who just want to protect their privacy can't keep their online activities private because of these scrapers collecting their information....