This episode started out as a discussion of recommendation engines, like Netflix uses to suggest movies. There's still a lot of that in here. But a related topic, which is both interesting and important, is how to keep data private in the era of large-scale recommendation engines--what mistakes have been made surrounding supposedly anonymized data, how data ends up de-anonymized, and why it matters for you.

Relevant links:

http://www.netflixprize.com/

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/netflix-cancels-contest-plans-and-settles-suit/?_r=0

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/cs/pdf/0610/0610105v2.pdf