But of course when they flog the data base off for marketing purposes it'll be dead useful for targetting possible customers. Or manipulating potential voters, which if course is really just another aspect of marketing.

All part of the rush towards the first genuinely totalitarian system there has ever been. The old tyrants might have dreamed of having this kind of control, but the new ones will have it at their fingertips, and won't even need to be nasty, except on occasion.