Example sentence from mid-naughts: "I've heard several stories of USG bulk tapping Internet interconnection points, but it's never been substantiated."

Thinking from first principles lets us see incentives and probable outcomes before they are "substantiated" (adopted by the media).

I personally don't think shopper data is affecting insurance policies quite yet. But the groundwork is there (Acxiom etc), and the "great" thing about data is it stays around forever!

I'd guess a timeframe of 10 years, but does it really matter as to when?