Ryan Tagal, who is building the database, says it is uphill work, because hedge-fund managers are not in the habit of sharing information.

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To monitor compliance with these rules, the IRS and HHS are now building the largest personal information database the government has ever attempted.

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Uptake has been building this database for the past three years and now has 4 million monthly uniques, he adds.

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Some (not all, but some) companies have no intention of filling the jobs, only building a database.

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In addition, University of North Carolina researchers are building a database of all food consumed in the U.S. They have created a system to classify 600, 000 bar codes for food products.

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The FBI is in the process of building out its own facial-recognition database and is working with state DMVs to access their photos.

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Orix is also building a database aimed at luring 300, 000 individuals over the next few years with phone-delivered financial planning, investments, insurance and other financial services.

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We justified the expense as it seemed to be analogous to building up a database of email addresses of people that wanted to learn about our site and our products.

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Chemist Gregory Verdine was a Harvard professor with a position at a venture fund, but neither job was helping get his new project--building a vast database of natural chemicals that might work as drugs--the money it needed to take off.

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But Uptake, backed by Shasta Ventures and Trinity Ventures, has a database of 1.8 million travel destinations, hotels, and attractions that it has been building for the past three years.

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