The following submission statement was provided by /u/CatnipJ:

The corporate push to produce personalized year-in-review data visualizations is entertaining, but it also normalizes the commercial surveillance practices happening on a minute-by-minute basis.

And yes, the year-in-reviews are primarily a form of advertising, but the advertising is calling consumers to act by becoming a customer and entering into the company’s particular data collection practices. Because, after all, more users equals more data; more data equals more data points; more data points equals more inferences — which, ultimately, may enable the company to predict more accurately how the user will act in the future.

But this begs the question: should we allow such a normalization to happen? Are we okay with companies blatantly and openly flaunting their data collection practices merely because they dress up the personalized results in bright colors and humorous quips?

Or, should we ignore the flashy adornments and call it what it is: commercial surveillance?

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/103y3sb/the_yearinreview_trend_is_a_reminder_of_just_how/j31kvse/