Consumers are an interesting lot. On the one hand, they rail against invasion of privacy by government agencies, decry internet hucksters who steal their identity and blame Facebook and other social media platforms for personal data mining and misuse—although 69% still use some sort of social media according to Pew Research. California has already passed privacy legislation and the US Federal government is said to be considering taking up the issue, too.

And yet, millions happily swab their mouths and send their spittle off to 23andMe to find out if they’re Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish—c’mon, does it really make a difference? Every time someone plucks a hair to send through the mail, they provide gobs of data and more fodder for insurance companies to deny them health coverage somewhere down the road.

The latest welcome invasion of privacy comes from Henkel’s Schwarzkopf hair care division of all places. Teaming up with the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute—and everyone knows how much the Chinese respect privacy issues—Schwarzkopf researchers developed My Specialist Hair Analysis, a program that uses advanced microscopy to examine the structure of the hair, and uses the data to create specific formulas. Sounds harmless enough, but in an age of data mining and identity theft, “surveillance capitalism” as business theorist Shoshana Zuboff calls it, has become a growing privacy issue that impacting everything from shampoo sales to presidential elections.


Also this month, we report on the latest issues impacting the surfactant industry, trendy beauty ingredients and environmental fragrances.

Tom Branna
Editorial Director
[email protected]