Data Storage: problem or solution?

Data mining became a very popular topic in ethical conferences, and as any other polemic, does not have right or wrong answers, it will always depends on the angle you are analyzing the case.
Based on the ethical analysis of the articles "How Target Figured Out a Teen Girl was Pregnant Before her Father did" by Kashmir Hill at Forbes, and "Inside the mind of the Anonymous Online Poster" by Neil Swidey at Boston.com, we notice that everyday the number of ethical controversies involving data mining increases.  People have different opinion about the data collected by technologies companies during our "surfing" time at the Internet. Some feel vulnerable because of its data being exposed without boundaries, and others believe that technology is just helping out personalizing our profiles.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/22/dont-want-to-be-targeted-by-target-theres-an-opt-out/

The article How Target Figured Out a Teen Girl was Pregnant Before her Father did" talks more about the targeted marketing exposing Target's customers sending them coupons related to their last searches or buys online. As always I would consider the Aristotle's Theory defending the middle ground, in this case depends on the client, some feel uncomfortable being tracked by a store, but others think this marketing strategy helps them in the future search saving some time. This topic will always be very polemic from the ethical perspective.

In this case, Target manager's ethical obligation to the angry customer was to respect his client, which I believe he did a great job apologizing to the customer and being concerned about the company's reputation. The manager should always be respectful to the company's customer, avoiding ruining the company's reputation, reminding me of Kant's Imperative Theory were the respect should be in first place with no restrictions.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/22/dont-want-to-be-targeted-by-target-theres-an-opt-out/

Analyzing the Target's ad mixing of coupon books, I believe they are not trying to "creep people out" but to improve their sales, when people prefer to apply for benefits like coupons, discounts, store's credit cards; they are aware that for this benefits they have to offer more personal information and they take the risk to make use of benefits anyway, so if they are willing to provide more information does not make the sales strategy of Target unethical. Business market has always been an exchange, you provide what the company wants and we provide your desire. It has been like this for years, now it's just more risky because of the technologies but the strategy is still the same: the exchange. I dare to say that most companies apply Mill's Utility Principle concerned about the best outcome. For example sending an ad mixing coupon book could cause some controversy and some issues like the father angry going to the store, but by the end their outcome is always increasing.

According to the book "Ethics in Media" by Plaisance, Chapter 2, the code of Ethics adopted by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defends that the professional of public relations should serve the public good always paying attention at the ethical controversies. This professional has to be loyal to the company but also be loyal to the public, this professional also has to honest, fair, independent, have expertise and always advocate serving the public interest responsibly. In the same chapter of this book also provides A code of ethics for advertisers from the American Association of Advertising Agencies Standards of Practice that reinforce the importance of the truthfulness in this professional.  Considering both codes of ethics, Target's practices fit within the code of ethics fro advertisers and PR practitioners. As mentioned before, companies tend to apply Mill's Utility Principle seeking the best outcome, and I would say the Aristotle's Golden Mean perspective also fits this case where the middle ground is defended seeking the human good, where everybody wins, the customers are satisfied with discounts, coupons and the companies are satisfied with good sales.