Everything You Wanted to Know About Data Mining but Were Afraid to Ask

From The Atlantic:

Big data is everywhere we look these days. Businesses are falling all over themselves to hire 'data scientists,' privacy advocates are concerned about personal data and control, and technologists and entrepreneurs scramble to find new ways to collect, control and monetize data. We know that data is powerful and valuable. But how?

This article is an attempt to explain how data mining works and why you should care about it.