Comment by glenstein

I wouldn't doubt that the possibility is there using it that way. But it just seems really impractical and inefficient. I think serious efforts at collecting personal data, involving databases and scripting to scrape data from websites that would not otherwise want to freely give it up, compromising passwords and so on. I don't know what actionable data you get from learning that someone judges a particular ink blot to look like a butterfly.

I think the explanation for their prevalence is just that they found their place in the regular churn of memes, jokes, and quizzes on social media.