Everybody does it. Everyone collects data on their customers, advertisers, future customers - everybody. As hard disk space becomes cheaper, the amount of data being collected keeps growing.<p>However, after all this data is collected, is anything useful coming out of it or is everyone turning into hoarders?<p>Was there anything in human history that showed that exponential collecting old things ended up being profitable (other than for patent trolls, tabloids, and stalkers)?