It's more about money. This data is worth a lot of money to marketers, retailers, pharmaceutical companies, etc. They have no incentive to share it freely or, I suspect, at a price reasonable to most individual consumers. (Maybe I'm wrong here?)
There was that interesting article a while back about how Target was able to figure out a teenage girl was pregnant before her own father did:
Target can buy data about your ethnicity, job history, the magazines you read, if you’ve ever declared bankruptcy or got divorced, the year you bought (or lost) your house, where you went to college, what kinds of topics you talk about online, whether you prefer certain brands of coffee, paper towels, cereal or applesauce, your political leanings, reading habits, charitable giving and the number of cars you own. (In a statement, Target declined to identify what demographic information it collects or purchases.)
I'd be very curious, and a little scared, to see all this kind of information collected on me.
I don't think so. Documentation is for people. Discoverability is for machines. Notice I suggested it's the scientists' routine which does the discovery, not the scientists themselves.
