Empathy, the soul-nourishing human kind, includes more than just the accurate information data mining yields.

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Raw data is the information obtained when one conducts a survey or data mining exercise.

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The staggering, and fast-growing, information-crunching capabilities of data-mining technology broaden the definition of what is considered suspicious.

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The NYT points out that, if the suit continues to make its way through the court system, IMDb will be forced to reveal the tricks of its data-mining and exactly how it gathers information about the movie-magic-making people in its database.

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Furthermore, empathy experienced in a human relationship will always be different from the experience of being known by some data-mining organization, however accurate the information may be that is discerned.

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The chief significance of the data mining that worries the legislators in Vermont is precisely that it can give valuable information to these detailers, helping to further entrench brand-name drugs as part of the medical scene in Vermont, keeping generics (they fear) on the margins of the markets.

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Much of that information will be gleaned from data mining of what you provide unwittingly from the use of your Apps and the smarter-than-you (STU) phone.

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Glen Jones of Intierra RMG, a company that provides sources of data, analysis, consulting, reports and mineral information maps to the mining industry, believes there is a significant amount of risk in the sector today.

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There are mashups that let you see which products are selling best on eBay , that help manage the sale of foreclosed property through a network of real estate agents, or merge sales information with data mining from analysis firm Business Objects .

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Expect it to score well here: Tesco in the last few years has displayed a zealous appetite for mining information about its customers' shopping habits by tracking data from its loyalty card.

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