What Stays in Vegas

by Adam Tanner

  6. Nina Bernstein, “On Line, High-Tech Sleuths Find Private Facts,” New York Times, September 15, 1997.

  7. Another example: more than four times more couples marry in Vegas than in Seattle and its surrounding county, an area with an almost identical population. Comparative statistics from 2013 at www.clarkcountynv.gov/depts/clerk/Pages/Statistics.aspx.

  8. The search page for marriages in Clark County is at https://aivitals.co.clark.nv.us.

  9. Wynn sought the same records from two different offices about the same weddings because about 3 percent of those who get a marriage license do not go through with the marriage. The recorder’s office registers those who do actually wed, but the license application contains more personal information.

  10. I contacted Terry Murphy, the outside consultant to Wynn who had worked on the campaign. “It’s a matter of guest privacy,” she told me when she declined to talk about the marketing campaign.

  11. The company has since changed its slogan to “Search People. Reunite.”

  12. A Spokeo official agreed some weeks later to speak by telephone.

  13. He did finally respond by email more than a year later during the final fact checking for this book.

  14. Adler left the position in 2013 to become vice president of products at Metanautix, a big data startup.

  15. See www.peoplefinders.com/about/leadership.

  Chapter 6: Dossiers on (Virtually) Everyone

  1. Buffett’s and Munger’s answers are quoted in Whitney Tilson’s 2007 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Notes, May 5, 2007, at www.tilsonfunds.com/Berkshire_Hathaway_07_annual%20meeting_notes.pdf. These notes correspond with Monahan’s recollection as well.

  2. As the company has grown and industry prices have fallen, they now pay far less for the data, in the neighborhood of 12 to 20 cents per cell phone lookup, Matthew says.

  3. Intelius S-1 filing to Securities and Exchange Commission, October 19, 2009. In the end, Intelius canceled the initial public offering, so it did not announce financial results in subsequent years.

  4. See http://corp.intelius.com/intelius-facts.

  5. In its IPO filing, Intelius wrote that “total advertising expenses were approximately $30.3 million, $39.9 million and $58.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2007 and 2008, respectively.” Their total expenses in those years were $47.7 million, $71.6 million, and $102.5 million.

  6. “One wrong turn and you’re enrolled in a membership program that costs you $20 or more each month. And you’ll never know until you scrutinize your credit card bill,” then Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna said of Intelius. See www.atg.wa.gov/uploadedFiles/Home/News/Press_Releases/2010/InteliusConsentDecree2010-08-10.pdf. Consent decree at http://is.gd/RTRXvx.

  7. “State General Fund Benefits from Intelius’ Bad Business Practice,” Washington State Office of the Attorney General, press release, February 2, 2011, at www.atg.wa.gov/pressrelease.aspx?&id=27274.

  8. Author interview, March 13, 2014.

  9. Of the 2.1 million firms about which the Council of Better Business Bureaus has current ratings and information as of mid-March 2014, 62 percent have an A+, according to statistics provided by Katherine Hutt, director of communications for the Council of Better Business Bureaus, on March 17, 2014.

  10. Thomas Dreiling v. Naveen Jain and Anuradha Jain and Info-Space, US District Court, Western District of Washington at Seattle, August 22, 2003, ruling at www.symslaw.com/infospace/order_on_summary_judgment_082203.pdf.

  11. Thomas Dreiling v. America Online; InfoSpace, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, August 19, 2009, ruling at http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/08/19/08-35095.pdf.

  12. Jain stresses that this cofounder was dismissed immediately after the company learned of the case. Email to author, March 13, 2014.

  13. Author interview with Spokeo chief strategist Emanuel Pleitez, November 29, 2012.

  14. See www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/06/spokeo.shtm. In 2014, Spokeo suffered another setback when the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a man who had trouble finding a job can sue the company for publishing inaccurate information about him even if he cannot prove actual harm. Thomas Robins v. Spokeo Inc., US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, February 4, 2014.

  15. See http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/08/17/MyLife%20complaint.pdf. See also Section 4, www.mylife.com/privacy-policy.

  16. “It was settled, aided by the facts we shared with plaintiffs,” Tinsley said. “MyLife.com (formerly Reunion.com), has been in business for more than 12 years. We pride ourselves on providing valuable services to our customers, and work hard to maintain an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.” Email to author, March 12, 2014. The company declined to disclose the settlement details.

  17. Details at www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2012/lr22536.htm.

  18. See SEC announcement, at www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2013/lr22629.htm.

  19. See www.peoplesmart.com/about.

  20. Figure provided by Courtney Hill, a computer systems administrator in the Clark County Recorder’s office.

  21. See www.corelogic.com/about-us/news/corelogic-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2013-financial-results.aspx.

  22. See www.lssidata.com/data-sets/wireless-data.html.

  23. See www.lssidata.com/data-sets/landline-plus.html.

  24. See www.lssidata.com/why-lssidata.html. A CLEC is a competitive local exchange carrier.

  25. See peoplesmart.pissedconsumer.com/our-private-information-their-so-called-public-information-20110207220356.html.

  26. Inflection sets out its easy-to-understand privacy policies at http://inflection.com/privacy.

  27. Pop-up screen as accessed on the site March 25, 2014.

  28. See www.instantcheckmate.com/features/, accessed March 25, 2014.

  29. The founder of Intelius, Naveen Jain, said his company, which operates a series of people search sites, remains the industry’s biggest player overall, with twenty-eight million unique visitors in January 2014. Email to author, March 13, 2014.

  30. Number of searches as given on March 25, 2014.

  31. “InstantCheckmate.com Offers a Tool That Could Help Protect Your Child’s Safety,” Marketwire news release, April 5, 2011, at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/InstantCheckmatecom-Offers-a-iw-2840624434.html.

  32. Company blog post, December 13, 2012, at http://blog.instantcheckmate.com/5-people-to-run-a-criminal-background-check-on/.

  33. Email from Kibak to the author, October 16, 2013.

  34. See http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/registry.

  35. Email from Kibak to the author, March 24, 2014.

  36. See www.instantcheckmate.com/about/.

  37. “BreederRetriever.com Goes Live: Disgruntled Investment Banker and Internet Guru Team Up to Launch Ambitious New Website,” October 24, 2006, at www.prweb.com/releases/entrepreneur/breederretriever/prweb454675.htm.

  38. See http://blog.instantcheckmate.com/need-to-give-away-your-pet-make-sure-it-goes-to-a-good-home-with-instant-checkmate/.

  39. See http://blog.instantcheckmate.com/instant-checkmate-why-you-should-run-a-background-check-on-yourself/.

  40. See http://blog.instantcheckmate.com/this-what-work-fridge-supposed-look-like/.

  41. According to a tweet from Kibak, thecontrolgroup.com went online in May 2013.

  42. Email from Kibak to the author, October 16, 2013.

  43. See http://is.gd/yu422S and http://is.gd/diO7YA, whose conditions include in all caps: “PLEASE NOTE: ALL AD-COPIES/CREATIVES AND LANDING PAGES MUST BE APPROVED. . . . ONLY AFTER YOUR AD COPIES/CREATIVES ARE APPROVED WILL YOU BE ALLOWED TO RUN THIS OFFER.”

  44. See www.peerflyoffers.com/offer.php?id=6598. That campaign said Instant Checkmate would absolutely not allow “unapproved/false/deceptive subject lines” in the promotional emails.

  45. See www.neverblueescape.com/.

  46. “All-expenses Paid Trip to Croatia for Publishers in Performance Marketing,” PRWEB r
elease, February 5, 2014, at www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11549124.htm.

  47. Email from Kibak to the author, March 24, 2014.

  48. Ibid., October 16, 2013.

  49. AdWords are Google ads that appear on Google’s search pages. AdSense delivers ads for searches on other firms’ websites such as About.com. For simplicity here I am describing both as Google ads.

  50. In 2013 the company was expanding its vision, with Kibak and a partner leading the Control Group, “the company who developed the popular website, Instant Checkmate.” It called itself “a San Diego–based startup that specializes in large-scale data aggregation, marketing, and design.” See “The Control Group, Developer for Instant Checkmate, Expands Professional Development Program,” press release, July 23, 2013.

  51. See www.thecontrolgroup.com/drafternoon-recap-revealing-the-new-office/.

  52. Lowrey email to the author, October 9, 2012.

  53. Email from Kibak to the author, October 16, 2013.

  54. Meagan Simmons v. Instant Checkmate, filed February 25, 2014, in Hillsborough County, Florida.

  55. Email from Kibak to the author, March 24, 2014.

  56. See press releases at http://is.gd/wCBtNV.

  57. Complaint at http://is.gd/j51e6J.

  58. Company statement emailed to author April 9, 2014.

  Chapter 7: Direct Marketing

  1. For an example of these categories, see www.aslmarketing.com/list_high_school_students.php.

  2. See www.aslmarketing.com/list_high_school_students.php.

  3. Figures provided by Joshua Kanter as of March 2014.

  4. MGM Resorts statistic from Adam Bravo, MGM’s director of campaign operations, March 17, 2014, email to author.

  5. Bravo made the comment at the 2012 annual Direct Marketing Association conference.

  6. I sent this quote to American Express for reaction. Marina Hoffmann Norville, the company’s vice president for corporate, financial and risk public relations, declined to comment in an email dated January 18, 2013.

  7. Boris Emmet and John E. Jeuck, Catalogues and Counters (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950), 2–3.

  8. Details drawn from an article in Printers’ Ink: A Journal for Advertisers, November 25, 1903, 3. “To get all the telephone directories in a given state and copy the names seems like a simple proceeding,” said company president J. N. P. Cramer. “You would naturally suppose that the advertiser who wanted to reach these people could do that himself.” However, he went on to say that gathering all the phone books from smaller communities in places such as Ohio and New York was difficult, so his company provided a valuable service to marketers. Phone directories have remained an important source of personal data ever since.

  9. The company reported worldwide revenue of $1.38 billion in 2013, up 39 percent from $996 million in 2012.

  10. Epsilon letter to Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, then headed by Ed Markey and Joe Barton, August 14, 2012.

  11. See www.epsilon.com/about-us.

  12. Details about Acxiom’s reach come from a company letter to Congressman Edward Markey, August 15, 2012.

  13. Presentation to Direct Marketing Association panel in Las Vegas, October 14, 2012. In 2013 Suther left Acxiom after eight years to become a managing director at JPMorgan Chase.

  14. Author interview, November 8, 2012.

  15. Ibid.

  16. See the 2013 UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic at www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2013/gr2013/UNAIDS_Global_Report_2013_en.pdf.

  17. Mike McIntire, “Clinton Backer’s Ties to Powerful Cut Both Ways,” New York Times, July 14, 2007.

  18. See everestcpi.com/entrepreneurs.html.

  19. Details from the SEC complaint at www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2010/comp21451-gupta.pdf.

  20. Ibid.

  21. “SEC Charges Former Executives in Illegal Scheme to Enrich CEO With Perks,” SEC press release, March 15, 2010.

  22. “Gupta agreed to pay disgorgement of $4,045,000, prejudgment interest of $1,145,400, and a penalty of $2,240,700,” according to an SEC statement on March 15, 2010, at www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-39.htm. Gupta did not want to discuss this episode in his life when we met or when we later spoke on the phone and exchanged emails.

  23. “102 Million Cell Phone Numbers to be Available from Database USA.com,” press release, October 25, 2012.

  24. Woolley was acting CEO at the time; in 2013 she formally became CEO.

  25. DMA cited these statistics many times in 2012. See, for example, www.the-dma.org/cgi/disppressrelease?article=1565.

  26. The clients of all this personal data are not just companies trying to sell products. Politicians, from President Barack Obama on down, are making increasingly sophisticated use of data from Acxiom and many other firms to target their messages to receptive voters. Health care organizations can even buy data predicting how likely you are to keep taking your medications over the next year. For example, Fair Isaac sells such data in its FICO Medication Adherence Score.

  27. Acxiom letter to Congressman Edward Markey, August 15, 2012.

  28. Asked about the impact of Acxiom on the company’s marketing, Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver said, “Regarding the number of room nights generated by partnerships with Acxiom, our records dating to back to our opening do not substantiate those numbers.”

  29. Author interview with Tim Suther when he was still at Acxiom.

  Chapter 8: Recession

  1. In the two decades before the 2008 financial crisis hit, casino assets in Nevada increased more than tenfold. David G. Schwartz and Riva Churchill, Nevada Gaming: Assets, Liabilities, and Expenses, 1984–2011 (Las Vegas: Center for Gaming Research, University Libraries, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2013).

  2. Ibid.

  3. Norton later became the chief analytics officer at clothing retailer Urban Outfitters.

  4. As reported in the company’s annual 10-K statements.

  Chapter 9: The Puzzle of Your Identity

  1. Stanley Milgram, “The Small World Problem,” Psychology Today, May 1967, 61–67.

  2. This narrative is based on interviews with Harry Lewis, who also shared with me his email correspondence with Mark Zuckerberg from that time. Those Zuckerberg emails have not previously been made public, Lewis said.

  3. For more details about the project, see mypersonality.org/wiki/doku.php?id=about_mypersonality.

  4. Michal Kosinski, David Stillwell, and Thore Graepel, “Private Traits and Attributes Are Predictable from Digital Records of Human Behavior,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 6, 2013, at www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/03/06/1218772110.full.pdf.

  5. Author interview, March 21, 2013.

  6. Facebook communications manager Jay Nancarrow said the company had no comment to make on the study. Email to author, March 14, 2014.

  7. Intelius-operated sites include USSearch, ZabaSearch, Public Records, PeopleLookup, PhonesBook, and LookupAnyone.

  8. Author interview, December 18, 2012.

  9. Because rules governing the industry are limited, data brokers have a lot of leeway as to where to draw the line on what they sell. Some feel comfortable listing religion or sexual orientation. Others impose far greater self-restrictions. US Farm Data, a Nebraska-based data broker that rents lists of 2.5 million farmers, does not list cell phone numbers because it does not want to burden farmers with the cost of incoming calls. As a result, its listings are becoming less complete as some farms abandon landlines for cellular service.

  10. Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree, “Gaydar: Facebook Friendships Expose Sexual Orientation,” First Monday 14, no. 10-5 (October 2009).

  11. The study did not find the same patterns for lesbians, either because they represented a small sample in the survey or because of different interactions in lesbian communities.

  12. Author interview with Mistree, February 27, 2013.

  13. Ibid.

  14.
Weld declined to respond for comment when contacted.

  15. Ninety tries to pass the twenty questions may seem high at first, but it’s not that bad, all things considered. For twenty questions with five choices each, it would take, on average, 119 trillion tries to get a perfect score by guessing randomly.

  16. The study assumed that people could read 250 words a minute. Aleecia M. McDonald and Lorrie Faith Cranor, “The Cost of Reading Privacy Policies,” I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 2008 (Privacy Year in Review issue).

  17. Sweeney describes her findings at dataprivacylab.org/projects/pgp/.

  18. Despite the warnings the Personal Genome Project gives volunteers, Church does not see a great danger from sharing one’s DNA with the world. He cites the 2008 Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act’s protections against health insurance and job discrimination, and he says there is no evidence of adverse impact on insurance. “Rumor has it is working in the opposite direction, which is there are people who are getting the DNA sequence and then deciding on their life insurance and long-term care based on the stuff they know and the insurance company does not know, and there is no law that restricts that,” he says. What about the impact from financial institutions? For example, might a bank want to decline a loan to someone unlikely to live very long? “These companies are not yet highly motivated to do that and . . . they would be ill advised to do that from a public relations standpoint,” he says. For his part, Church embraces a philosophy of posting intimate data about himself on his personal website (arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/pers.html). He tells the world he has suffered from a heart attack, carcinoma, narcolepsy, dyslexia, pneumonia, and motion sickness. He gives the exact coordinates of his home as well as his birth and marriage details, in addition to the names of his genetic and adoptive parents. He also posts a document that many others might have wanted to hide or even burn: a 1976 letter from Duke University expelling him for getting an F in his graduate major subject.