Ideas For Final Project

I'm interested in doing my final project on "cultural patterns and the digital world". I recently blogged about an article I came across on analyzing cultural patterns. The response posts were interesting as people were concerned about being tracked, as well as, invasion of personal privacy. I want to look further into this subject to see if we have something to be concerned about. If new software allows analysis of cultural patterns on the web, do we need to worry about being "personally watched" or the possibility of our actions on the web coming back to haunt us? Or will tracking user activity for the purpose of analyzing cultural patterns be safe and anonymous? Any feedback or suggestions?