by Adam Tanner
gathered by privacy companies, 227–229
historical documents for genealogy, 61–62
mug shots, 72–74, 137–144, 149–155
purchased from government agencies, 62–63, 65, 67
sold by Intelius, 57–58
used by casinos, 49
Public shaming on the Internet, 151, 152, 243, 246
Publishers Clearing House, 242
Qiy.nl, 234
Quarri’s myPOQ, 262
R&R Partners, 243
Racial data. See Ethnic and racial group targeting
Raider, Al, 261
Rain Man movie, 36
Ramer, Jorey, 186
Rapleaf, 174
Rasushi.com, 162
Rat Pack, 7, 17, 21
Real-time bidding (RTB), 262
Real-time casino marketing (RTCM), 193
Recession. See Financial crisis of 2008
Redford, Robert, 36
Reidentified personal data, 102–108, 109, 111–113, 248
Reno, Nevada, 10, 23, 78
Reputation.com
raises venture capital, 232
removes, obscures, damaging data/reviews, 226–229, 248, 267
vault opening delayed, 234
Reputationdefender.com, 227
Reuters, 3
Reversephonedetective.com, 54–55, 57, 59, 68
Reviews, negative and damaging, 116–117, 226, 229
Revolution.com, 232
Rhodes, Vera, 3–4
Rio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, 13(fig)
Rosenthal, Frank “Lefty,” 7, 43, 132
Rowland, Alex, 168, 169
Roy, Paola, 138–139, 143, 150
Ruby, Daniel, 187
Russell, Ryan, 142, 150, 153
Sadh, Devyani, 173
Sahara Hotel and Casino, 17
Salmon, Walter, 12, 188–189
San Diego, California, 70–72, 178
San Francisco, California, 3, 31, 41, 52, 85, 167–169, 196
Sands Hotel, 17, 21
Santa Cruz, California, 70
Saracevic, Edin, 230–232, 233(fig)
Sarajevo, 230, 231
Satre, Phil, 11–12, 14, 26–27
Saturday Night Live TV program, 41
Schlesinger, Len, 9
Scholarships.com, 240–241
Schwartz, David, 217
Search engines, 70, 155, 264–265
Sears/Sears, Roebuck and Company, 78, 159
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 83
Securities fraud, 60
Security systems
in casinos, 123–133, 183–185, 201–202
hunting for patterns in social networks, 98–99, 134–136
mobile communications, email, search engines, 262–265
See also Surveillance
Segmenting data lists
behavior segments, 195
cultural segments, 89
for direct marketing, 76
ethnic, racial, religious, segments, 86
for fundraising, 79
geographically, 217–218
September 11, 2001 attacks, 1–2, 57
Serling, Rod, 21
Seven Stars tier of Caesars’ Total Rewards, 30, 176, 178, 193, 194, 196
Sex offender registries, 70, 140, 153
Sexual orientation unmasked from personal data, 99–101, 111, 113, 241, 248
Sgrouples, 265
Shackelford, Lynwood, 87
Shaming. See Public shaming on the Internet
Shaukat, Tariq, 178, 209–213
Shavell, Rob, 261
ShazzleMail, 264, 265
Shepherd, Dave, 131–132
Shmatikov, Vitaly, 109–111, 260
Shopping, 244, 247
online, 264
shoppers tracked electronically, 132, 188
traditional and in-store, 78, 267
Siegel, Bugsy, 7, 21
Sightline Payments, 184–185
Silent Circle, 264
Silicon Valley, 52–54, 66, 169, 226–227
Silver Nugget Casino, 133–134
Simmons, Meagan, 73
Simpson, O. J., 138
Sinatra, Frank, 17, 21, 43, 47, 137–138
Sinisi, Karen, 88, 89
Six Degrees to Harry Lewis site, 98
60 Minutes II TV program, 83
Skype, 52, 260
Slot machines
background, as casinos’ moneymakers, 22–23
data gathering, tracking, of players, 25–26, 33–34, 189–190
future personalization, 189
with movie/television themes, 4, 23, 38
odds, 16–17, 175
Slotomania, 189
Smart phones. See Cell phones; GPS tracking
Smith, Michael (imaginary Instant Checkmate spokesperson), 122
Snowden, Edward, 225, 264
Social networks, 59, 97–99, 101, 134–136, 242–243, 265. See also Facebook; Twitter
Social Security numbers available to data brokers, 47, 48, 65, 80, 219, 245, 268
Software Freedom Law Center, 260
The Sopranos TV program, 37
South Africa, 25, 174
South Korea, 246
Southwest Airlines, 9–10
Soviet Communism, 99–100, 110, 157, 231
Spacey, Kevin, 128
Spilotro, Anthony, 43, 44
Spokeo, 49, 59, 226, 239
Spy magazine, 162
Stanford University, 49, 53, 56, 59
Stardust Hotel and Casino, 17
Startpage, 264–265
Stasi files in East Germany, ix–xiii, 219, 222, 253
State Farm insurance, 144
Station Casinos, 184
Stillwell, David, 99
Stirista, 85, 87–89
Stitelman, Ori, 163–166
Sun City Casino, South Africa, 25
Sunshine Test, 213–214, 251
SurfEasy, 262, 265
Surfraw, 260
Surveillance
of casino customers, 123–126, 201–202
of casino staff, 133–134, 183–184
Surveys revealing personal data. See Online surveys; Personal Genome Project
Suther, Tim, 81, 90, 252–253
Sweeney, Latanya, 102–108
Table games, 22, 34–35
Taiwan, 246
Tang, Harrison, 49, 239
Telemarketing, 56, 163, 246
Telephone number searches, 54, 65
TextSecure, 265
T5 Healthy Living, 84
Therisinghollywood.com, 164
Thieves casinos want to exclude, 125, 127, 131, 134–135
Third-party affiliate advertisers, contractors, 71–72, 122
Third-party cookies, 160, 261
Third-party data, 40, 210–212, 219
Thunderbird Hotel, 32
Ticketmaster, 212
Time Warner Cable, 86
Tinsley, Jeff, 49–50, 60
TMZ.com, 161(fig)
Tobacco, 76, 78, 79, 201
Tony Soprano character, 36–37
Tor, 263
Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution . . . (Bell), 268
Total Rewards credit card, 183
Total Rewards loyalty program, 26(fig), 28(fig), 92(fig)
data gathered from members, 33–34, 37
data not sold to others, 40, 213
exemplified by customer Kostel, 37–40
mistargeted offers, 217
popularity at new Horseshoe Cincinnati, 206–207
revamped by Kanter, 93–94, 176–179
TPG Capital, 91
Tracking (online), 110–112, 132, 161–163. See also GPS tracking; Shopping
Tracking of gamblers by casinos, 26, 33–36, 174–175, 181
TrackMeNot, 260
Tracy, Spencer, 42
TransUnion, 63, 266
Turkewitz, Eric, 151
21 movie, 128–129
The Twilight Zone TV p
rogram, 21, 22–23, 35
Twitter, 161, 242, 254
Tyson, Mike, 48
Ubuntu, 265
UCLA, 196
United Nations, 231
University of California, Berkeley, 164–165
University of California, Santa Cruz, 70
University of Cambridge, 58, 99
University of Chicago, 27
University of Illinois, 145, 148
University of Maryland, 261
University of Nevada Center for Gaming Research, 217
University of Southern California, 51
University of Texas, 109, 260
University Painters, 75–76, 93
Unpublished phone numbers, 54, 65
Unspyable, 262
Upgradevisits.com, 168
US Congress, 72–73, 244, 246
US Department of Education, 234
US Department of Homeland Security, 242, 246
US government. See under specific government-related entries
US Internal Revenue Service, 162
US National Security Agency (NSA), 220, 264
US Postal Service (USPS) address records, 65, 84, 173
Vaughan, Sarah, 32
Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino, 17, 132, 216
Vernon, Cheryl, 245
Vietnam, 76, 88, 246
Visa, 266
Voice recognition, 189
VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), 65, 86
Voter registration records, 44, 86, 102, 104
VPN (virtual private network), 262, 265
W3m web browser, 260
Wall Street Journal, 203, 252
Wallace, David Foster, 197
Walsh, John, 153
Walsh, Kit, 263
Walt Disney Company, 219
Warranty cards, 80, 82, 250
Warsaw Marriott Hotel, 10
Washington, DC, 58, 78, 231, 232, 233(fig)
Washington Suburban Press Network, 87
Web beacons, 159–160, 162
Weld, William, 102
Wellhabits.com, 167
Wesleyan University, 7, 75, 93
What Happens Here, Stays Here ad campaign, 3, 243–244
Wheel of Fortune, 4, 22, 110
WhisperSystems, 265
White Ops, 169–170
WhiteHat Aviator, 262
Whiting, Ted, 133, 136
Willis, Edward, 207
WINet (Winners Information Network), 27
Wired.com, 55
Womenshealthspace.com, 164
Woolley, Linda, 85
Wunderman, Lester, 237–238
Wynn, Steve, 7–8, 48, 214–216
Wynn Resorts, 49, 90
Yahoo ads, 51, 54, 66, 162
Yelp listing for Instant Checkmate, 115–117, 122
YouTube, 254
Yugoslavia, 230
Zane, Mike, 242
Zennström, Niklas, 52
Zeta-Jones, Catherine, 36
ZIP codes as personal data, 86–87, 102, 106–107, 242, 247
ZIP+4, 173
Zuckerberg, Mark, 55–56, 98, 118, 136
PHOTO BY CLARISSA TANNER
Adam Tanner writes about the business of personal data. He is a fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University and was previously a Nieman fellow there. Tanner has worked for Reuters News Agency as Balkans bureau chief (based in Belgrade, Serbia), as well as San Francisco bureau chief, and has had previous postings in Berlin, Moscow, and Washington, DC. He also contributes to Forbes and other magazines.
PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.
I. F. STONE, proprietor of I. F. Stone’s Weekly, combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history. At the age of eighty, Izzy published The Trial of Socrates, which was a national bestseller. He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek.
BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE was for nearly thirty years the charismatic editorial leader of The Washington Post. It was Ben who gave the Post the range and courage to pursue such historic issues as Watergate. He supported his reporters with a tenacity that made them fearless and it is no accident that so many became authors of influential, best-selling books.
ROBERT L. BERNSTEIN, the chief executive of Random House for more than a quarter century, guided one of the nation’s premier publishing houses. Bob was personally responsible for many books of political dissent and argument that challenged tyranny around the globe. He is also the founder and longtime chair of Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world.
•••
For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors. In 1983, Schnapper was described by The Washington Post as “a redoubtable gadfly.” His legacy will endure in the books to come.
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