Data mining, or the use of large amounts of consumer data to predict buying patterns, is widely used in certain industries to help companies select the most profitable products and services, set prices, and increase consumer demand for their products and services. Hotels, supermarkets, airlines, credit card companies, and casinos (note the example about Harrah's in the chapter, page 270) commonly use this approach, sometimes with the help of "loyalty cards" that the customer uses at checkout. Regression analysis and other analytics are then applied to the data to help the company predict buying patterns.
Required
1. What is the strategic role of data mining?
2. What, if any, ethical issues are of potential concern when a company uses data mining?