What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data%E2%80%94Lifeblood of Big Businesses%E2%80%94and the End of Privacy as We Know It

Tanner takes readers beyond the headlines of national government snooping to unveil how private businesses are gathering personal data on multitudes of individuals every day. Tanner uses casinos and their practices to scaffold his study because they were some of the early users of customer data but his focus is much broader. Companies that most Americans have never heard of gather information from name, address and email to purchasing patterns, sexual orientation and mug shots. He repeats that these corporations generally "use our data for legitimate business purposes, essentially to market their products" without much discussion of whether marketing of this intensity on this scale is truly innocuous. He does acknowledge that personal data aggregation is not always used in the consumer's best interest. While much data gathering happens online via "cookies" that are possible to control, other activities such as gathering data from mobile devices involves no consent at all. He concludes by offering an appendix with various tools and strategies for controlling the flow of personal data while acknowledging that no single practice is a silver bullet but he offers no discussion of the potential harm posed by the possibility of hackers. Nevertheless, this should prove to be a valuable look at our startling lack of privacy. Agent: Alice Martell, Martell Agency (Sept.)