Finding out what the future holds in store for you is great for customers. (I guess.) But 23andMe getting to compile a vast database of genetic material from its customers is a wee bit disturbing.

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Youku has developed a sophisticated monitoring system: dozens of editors watch new material and classify it, building a video database that can be used to find good content, but also to block undesirable clips.

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We also have the ability to check where a particular consignment of coltan comes from: we have a database of the residual elements typical of each known mine and can thus check material, as with a fingerprint.

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This threw up issues surrounding how the material could be archived, as it was not only about preserving the information into a database in a traditional sense, but also how people would access it depending on their gender, their relationship to other people and where they were situated.

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