Tales of Big Data & Consumer Privacy Threats. Coca Cola on datamining: "data whisperers will become the new messiahs"

The food and beverage industry is in the forefront of using digital media marketing, including data collection (social media, mobile, gaming, etc) to target youth and others.  Anyone who thinks that the mobile applications arena doesn't pose serious privacy and consumer protection concerns--from kids, teens to adults--just isn't following the growth (and consequences) of locational marketing.  We can't resist running this New Media Age excerpt from a Coca Cola executive on the growing role of data mining--and what they are "listening" for:
The Coca-Cola Company and data will become increasingly integral in the marketing mix, according to its VP of global ad strategy and creative excellence, Jonathan Mildenhall. Discussing at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity what Coca-Cola refers to as its “liquid and linked” marketing approach, Mildenhall said consumer-generated stories and the distribution of technology were among the key drivers of change at the company. “We can’t separate technology from the creative idea itself,” he said...Mining data will also play an increasingly important part in the Coca-Cola marketing mix, according to Mildenhall. “Data will become the new soil in which our ideas will grow and data whisperers will become the new messiahs,” he said.