Synopses & Reviews
In
What Stays in Vegas, journalist Adam Tanner exposes the greatest threat to privacy today. Its not the NSA, but good-old American companies. Internet giants, leading retailers and other firms are gathering data behind the scenes with little oversight from anyone. This is the information age, and information is power!” screamed DocuSearch, Americas Premier Resource for Private Investigator Searches and Lookups” in 1996and they were right.
In Las Vegas, no company knows this mantra better than Caesars Entertainment. Despite the fact that its Vegas casinos are decades old and cant boast their rivals singing gondoliers or fountains exploding in a choreographed dance, many thousands of enthusiastic clients continue to pour through the ever-open doors of Caesars hotels. The secret to the companys success lies in their one unrivaled asset: they are able to track the activities of the overwhelming majority of gamblers who walk in. They know exactly what games we like to play, what foods we enjoy for breakfast, when we prefer to visit, who our favorite hostess might be and exactly how to keep us coming back for more.
Caesars dogged data-gathering methods have been so successful that they grew to become the worlds largest casino operator, and they have inspired companies from across industries to ramp up their own data mining in the hopes of boosting their targeted marketing efforts. Some do this themselves. Some rely on data brokers. Others clearly enter a moral gray zone that would make American consumers deeply uncomfortable.
Even if youve never set foot in a casino or signed up for an airlines frequent flier program, companies little-known to the public like Acxiom are still gathering information on you at every turn. And there are those, such as PeopleSmart and Instant Checkmate, that will sell your dossier to anyone for cash.
The reality is that we live in an age where our personal information is harvested and aggregated whether we like it or not. And it is growing ever more difficult for those businesses that choose not engage in more intrusive data gathering to compete with those that do. Tanners timely warning resounds: yes, there are many benefits to the free flow of all this data, but there is a dark side as well. With societal and legal boundaries on the use of personal data still largely undefined, the potential for abuse looms large.
And, as to what stays in Vegas? The answer: almost nothing
Review
One of the Washington Postand#8217;s 50 Notable Nonfiction Books of 2014and#147;[A] masterpiece...Tanner's book is one of the best business books written this year; in fact, it is one of the best business books in this century. It reminds me of Joe Nocera's first book, A Piece of the Action, in that it combines detailed knowledge of his subject matter with an excellent writing style, countless personal interviews and observations of events.and#8221; Don McNay, Huffington Post
and#147;What Stays in Vegasis an engrossing, story-packed takedown of the data industryand#133;What Stays in Vegas offers a narrative that transforms Big Data from spreadsheet-dull to a racy read people will pay attention to.and#8221; Financial Times
and#147;The book provides an insiderand#8217;s look at the business of assembling, packaging and reselling data, and it uses glittery Las Vegas to show that kind of information at work.and#8221; Dina Temple-Raston, Washington Post
and#147;Mr. Tanner's engaging book is realistic.and#8221; Marc Levinson, Wall Street Journal
"Although and#145;What Stays in Vegasand#8217; starts with insights gained from casino data, the book is even more interesting when it delves into the occasionally questionable practices of other businesses that use personal data for profit.and#8221; Kim Ukura, Madison (WI) Capital Times
and#147;[A] very readable account about our disappearing privacyand#133;What Stays in Vegas is both readable and entertaining, and in a similar manner as Michael Lewis's writings, Tanner provides interesting stories about the people and companies that are now so directly involved in our personal lives.and#8221; Winnipeg Free Press
and#147;I would recommend the Tanner book with the excellent title of What Stays in Vegas.and#8221; Inside Higher Ed
and#147;A compelling read on what companies are doing, how they get our information, what they do with it, and how some business approaches are more respectful of privacy than othersand#8221; Irish Times
and#147;Tanner illustrates his arguments with a traditional, vivid example from the business and entertainment world: Caesars Palace in Las Vegasand#133;Tanner weaves this example into a gripping account of the modern direct-marketing industryand#133; In this fascinating look at the dazzling if suffocating domain of digital information gathering, Tanner concludes that it is returning us to a world of farms and villages, where intimate details of everyoneand#8217;s lives were public knowledge.and#8221;Kirkus Reviews, *starred* review
and#147;Although What Stays in Vegas starts with insights gained from casino data, the book is even more interesting when it delves into the occasionally questionable practices of other businesses that use personal data for profit.and#8221; Capital Times, (Madison (WI)
and#147;Data may be to the 21st century economy what oil was to the 20th, a hugely valuable asset essential to economic life and often a source of conflict. This entertaining yet deeply informative book is a great guide to what has, or hasnand#8217;t, happened and to what lies ahead.and#8221; Lawrence Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and President Emeritus and Charles W. Eliot University Professor of Harvard University
and#147;In Adam Tannerand#8217;s fast-paced investigative report, What Stays in Vegas, we learn that the great advances of the digital age, access and interconnectedness, also carry great risks. Never before has information about oneand#8217;s identity been more valuable or easier to track for insightsand#151;and advantage. As we continue gathering data to unlock the secrets of our pasts and futures, hereand#8217;s what I hope doesnand#8217;t and#145;stay in Vegasand#8217;: the need to read Tannerand#8217;s book to figure out how to balance the promise of personalization against the threats posed to privacy. Itand#8217;s much too important a question to leave to the roll of dice.and#8221; Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor of Harvard University
Synopsis
The greatest threat to privacy today is not the NSA, but good-old American companies. Internet giants, leading retailers, and other firms are voraciously gathering data with little oversight from anyone.
In Las Vegas, no company knows the value of data better than Caesars Entertainment. Many thousands of enthusiastic clients pour through the ever-open doors of their casinos. The secret to the companyand#8217;s success lies in their one unrivaled asset: they know their clients intimately by tracking the activities of the overwhelming majority of gamblers. They know exactly what games they like to play, what foods they enjoy for breakfast, when they prefer to visit, who their favorite hostess might be, and exactly how to keep them coming back for more.
Caesarsand#8217; dogged data-gathering methods have been so successful that they have grown to become the worldand#8217;s largest casino operator, and have inspired companies of all kinds to ramp up their own data mining in the hopes of boosting their targeted marketing efforts. Some do this themselves. Some rely on data brokers. Others clearly enter a moral gray zone that should make American consumers deeply uncomfortable.
We live in an age when our personal information is harvested and aggregated whether we like it or not. And it is growing ever more difficult for those businesses that choose not to engage in more intrusive data gathering to compete with those that do. Tannerand#8217;s timely warning resounds: Yes, there are many benefits to the free flow of all this data, but there is a dark, unregulated, and destructive netherworld as well.
About the Author
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.