Naked Consumer
How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities
Penguin Publishing Group · Print & ebook · February 1, 1994
After receiving a sudden surge of junk mail directed at new parents—even though his wife at the time was merely pregnant— Erik Larson, the National Bestselling author, set out to explore the lengths companies go to spy on individual consumers.
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- Who it’s for
- A private-life inquiry follows the trail from junk mail to the machinery of consumer data.
- Themes
- Consumer privacy, Personal data collection, Government and information access
- Genres
- Privacy & Surveillance, Why People Buy, Direct Marketing
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Start with this bookAbout this book
After receiving a sudden surge of junk mail directed at new parents—even though his wife at the time was merely pregnant— Erik Larson, the National Bestselling author, set out to explore the lengths companies go to spy on individual consumers. Posing as a CEO of a fictitious direct-mail corporation, Larson infiltrated companies that gather and sell personal information to assist businesses in their marketing campaigns.
Continue reading
He discovered the systems used to gather personal data, the staggering amount of personal information companies can gather, and the government’s role in helping companies learn about you.
Private Lives, Public Data
A private-life inquiry follows the trail from junk mail to the machinery of consumer data.
Come here for
- The unnerving leap from ordinary marketing to intimate personal information
- An investigation built around Larson’s undercover corporate role
Expect
- A close look at how companies gather and sell personal data
- A look at government’s role in making consumer information easier to gather
Where it sits
| Privacy & Surveillance | 66% |
|---|---|
| Direct Marketing | 48% |
| Why People Buy | 48% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Business Ethics
- Why People Buy
- Marketing Research
- Authors
- Erik Larson
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- February 1, 1994
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Consumer privacy · Personal data collection · Government and information access
- Reading lane
- Business Ethics