“We continually betray secrets about ourselves, and these secrets are systematically collected by the marketers’ intelligence network,” … Erik Larson offers four laws of data … First, “data must seek and merge with complementary data” – that is, everything you reveal may be used against you. Second, “data always will be used for purposes other than originally intended.” Third, “data collected about individuals will be used to cause minor or major harm to one or more members of the group who provided the information.” Finally, “confidential information is confidential only until someone decides it’s not.”
Predictor: Larson, Erik
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article about privacy for an Internet site, Chip Rowe writes about the 1992 book “The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities,” by business journalist Erik Larson, in which Larson coined the phrase “consumer espionage.” Rowe writes: ”Because marketers collect information in many ways, it’s impossible to take your name and personal information completely out of circulation. ‘We continually betray secrets about ourselves, and these secrets are systematically collected by the marketers’ intelligence network,’ writes Erik Larson in ‘The Naked Consumer,’ his account of the privacy wars. In his book, Larson describes how we are monitored. You may reveal some bit of information about yourself – your home address or phone number on a contest entry at the grocery store – and think nothing of it. But marketers use this information to compile complex profiles. Larson offers four laws of data in his book … First, ‘data must seek and merge with complementary data’ – that is, everything you reveal may be used against you. Second, ‘data always will be used for purposes other than originally intended.’ Third, ‘data collected about individuals will be used to cause minor or major harm to one or more members of the group who provided the information.’ Finally, ‘confidential information is confidential only until someone decides it’s not.'”
Biography:Erik Larson is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who wrote “The Naked Consumer” (Penguin Books, 1992) a book on databases, data collection, marketing and our shrinking privacy. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1992
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: ChipRowe.com
Title, headline, chapter name: Hiding From the Man
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.chiprowe.com/articles/privacy.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney