In the last case, it would have been all to easy to FTP these personal MS Word files to a designated site instead of posting them to a news group. There, they could be analyzed by marketing people. The fact that this has not yet happened simply indicates that the technology is still immature and that responsible merchants are not willing to engage in such activities. But third party individuals might. Now you can.
Installation is trivial.
Now, instead of sending thousands of unsolicited spams, you can precisely target your customers, fulfilling their every need. If you have noticed that email spamers are not particularly shy about sending you junk email, you may also suspect that neither would they be shy about using such a tool. Reputable companies doing business on the Internet would like to avoid risking their reputation, but there are plenty of individuals out there with a computer and a modem who can become instant business people at your expense. There must be a gazillion sites on the net that deal with Internet security and privacy issues. You could spend the rest of your life reading about all the related issues.