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The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities
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. 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.
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. 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.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
11 people are currently reading
3590 people want to read
About the author
Erik Larson
43 books70.2k followersErik Larson is the author of nine books and one audio-only novella. His latest book, The Demon of Unrest, is a non-fiction thriller about the five months between Lincoln’s election and the start of the Civil War. Six of his books became New York Times bestsellers. Two of these, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz and Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, both hit no. 1 on the list soon after launch. His chronicle of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, The Devil in the White City, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing. It lingered on various Times bestseller lists for the better part of a decade and is currently in development at Disney Studios. Erik’s In the Garden of Beasts, about how America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter experienced the rising terror of Hitler’s rule, is currently in development with StudioCanal and Playtone.
Erik’s first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac’s Storm, about the giant hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900, won the American Meteorology Society’s prestigious Louis J. Battan Author’s Award. The Washington Post called it the “Jaws of hurricane yarns.” Erik is particularly pleased to have won the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
His audio novella, No One Goes Alone, while a work of fiction, is a ghost story based on real-life events and characters, including famed 19th-century psychologist William James. Erik refers to it as a ghost story with footnotes.
He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture; he received a masters in journalism from Columbia University. After a brief stint at the Bucks County Courier Times, Erik became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, and later a contributing writer for Time Magazine. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and other publications.
He has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, the University of Oregon, and the Chuckanut Writers Conference in Bellingham, Wash., and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. A former resident of Seattle, he now lives in Manhattan with his wife, a neonatologist, who is also the author of the nonfiction memoir, Almost Home, which, as Erik puts it, “could make a stone cry.” They have three daughters in far-flung locations and professions. Their beloved dog Molly resides in an urn on a shelf overlooking Central Park, where they like to think she now spends most of her time.
Erik’s first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac’s Storm, about the giant hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900, won the American Meteorology Society’s prestigious Louis J. Battan Author’s Award. The Washington Post called it the “Jaws of hurricane yarns.” Erik is particularly pleased to have won the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
His audio novella, No One Goes Alone, while a work of fiction, is a ghost story based on real-life events and characters, including famed 19th-century psychologist William James. Erik refers to it as a ghost story with footnotes.
He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture; he received a masters in journalism from Columbia University. After a brief stint at the Bucks County Courier Times, Erik became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, and later a contributing writer for Time Magazine. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and other publications.
He has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, the University of Oregon, and the Chuckanut Writers Conference in Bellingham, Wash., and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. A former resident of Seattle, he now lives in Manhattan with his wife, a neonatologist, who is also the author of the nonfiction memoir, Almost Home, which, as Erik puts it, “could make a stone cry.” They have three daughters in far-flung locations and professions. Their beloved dog Molly resides in an urn on a shelf overlooking Central Park, where they like to think she now spends most of her time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
April 30, 2024
If you have read THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY or DEAD WAKE: THE LAST CROSSING OF THE LUSITANIA by Erik Larson, and can appreciate the amount of research that goes into documenting the stories he writes about, I would encourage you to pick up a copy of THE NAKED CONSUMER: HOW OUR PRIVATE LIVES BECOME PUBLIC COMMODITIES.
First published in 1992, one may think this is a bit outdated, with technology being what it is, always changing and improving. But I say that is all the more reason to read this and educate yourself, for it is all the more relevant in the world you now live in today.
Advertising has grown into a multi-million dollar industry. Some years ago McDonald's changed the advertising agency they did business with and shook up Wall Street as those selling goods to the American people rely on advertisers to bring in customers. As television became popular in America, merchants and advertisers realized its potential for hawking their goods and services. In order to know which TV shows were the most popular, and thereby the best place to run their commercials, the Nielsen company began placing devices in homes that kept track of which shows were tuned in. Of course there were several reasons why this data might be inaccurate, such as when people leave the room, so Nielsen tried to remedy this over the years with fancier devices. Erik covers this in pretty good detail.
It soon became apparent that just knowing which shows were popular left a lot of blanks about what the consumer wanted, so the industry set out to know more about the consumer themselves. Was the consumer a man or a woman? What did they eat? Where did they live? What were their hobbies? What was their income? Were they married? What was their race? In time this quest for knowledge morphed into an espionage service where money could be made.
Much of this information gathered over the years came from the Census Bureau and credit rating companies like Equifax. Another source of information came from being members of shopping clubs where by filling out an application listing personal information you got a card that gave you discounts on purchases. Do you remember the warranty cards for the items you bought that started out asking the item's serial number and ended up asking your age, level of education, and how much money you made? All that information was collected. At times even your garbage was gone through to see if you really bought and used products as claimed.
With the coming of bar codes, every purchase was recorded if you wrote a check, belonged to a buyer's club or used a credit or debit card. Whether you like it or not, you now have a national identification card that tracks you. To some it is known as a Visa.
Since Erik wrote this book you now can have your refrigerator remind you to buy milk. Your GPS not only shows you where to go but where you have been. Your phone tracks you as well. I can just imagine if Erik wrote an updated version of this book what it might say.
In time it has now got to the point where each of us has files made of our likes and dislikes. Nothing is sacred. What is the harm in this one may ask? Let's see. The rounding up of the Japanese Americans was helped by the Census Bureau. Those parents who filled out those Farrell's birthday cards so their kids could get a free ice cream cone on their birthday found reminders for draft registration in their mailboxes. One bank in Boston would not provide mortgages to certain zip codes that had low income black families. Gay organizations bought lists of gays (Yes, they could figure that out by what you bought, read, and places you frequent.) that were used to out people who were not ready or willing to announce that to family or friends. You bought roses, condoms, and paid for that motel room with a credit card. Hum? You are a single woman who purchased a lot of condoms, so was the incident really rape or concentual? The insurance company for the job you applied for might be interested that you buy a large cup of Mountain Dew every morning but have never bought a toothbrush nor been to the dentist since you were a child. Your car insurance company might be concerned that you habitually speed and buy a can of beer every day on the way home from work. Palestinian protesters can buy lists of Jewish Americans to harass and torment. Though racial stereotyping is frowned upon, it is used by advertising agencies, security agencies, and others.
All this information they collect on your private life is considered proprietary information that is sold Yet you receive not a cent. Erik thinks it is time this was changed.
First published in 1992, one may think this is a bit outdated, with technology being what it is, always changing and improving. But I say that is all the more reason to read this and educate yourself, for it is all the more relevant in the world you now live in today.
Advertising has grown into a multi-million dollar industry. Some years ago McDonald's changed the advertising agency they did business with and shook up Wall Street as those selling goods to the American people rely on advertisers to bring in customers. As television became popular in America, merchants and advertisers realized its potential for hawking their goods and services. In order to know which TV shows were the most popular, and thereby the best place to run their commercials, the Nielsen company began placing devices in homes that kept track of which shows were tuned in. Of course there were several reasons why this data might be inaccurate, such as when people leave the room, so Nielsen tried to remedy this over the years with fancier devices. Erik covers this in pretty good detail.
It soon became apparent that just knowing which shows were popular left a lot of blanks about what the consumer wanted, so the industry set out to know more about the consumer themselves. Was the consumer a man or a woman? What did they eat? Where did they live? What were their hobbies? What was their income? Were they married? What was their race? In time this quest for knowledge morphed into an espionage service where money could be made.
Much of this information gathered over the years came from the Census Bureau and credit rating companies like Equifax. Another source of information came from being members of shopping clubs where by filling out an application listing personal information you got a card that gave you discounts on purchases. Do you remember the warranty cards for the items you bought that started out asking the item's serial number and ended up asking your age, level of education, and how much money you made? All that information was collected. At times even your garbage was gone through to see if you really bought and used products as claimed.
With the coming of bar codes, every purchase was recorded if you wrote a check, belonged to a buyer's club or used a credit or debit card. Whether you like it or not, you now have a national identification card that tracks you. To some it is known as a Visa.
Since Erik wrote this book you now can have your refrigerator remind you to buy milk. Your GPS not only shows you where to go but where you have been. Your phone tracks you as well. I can just imagine if Erik wrote an updated version of this book what it might say.
In time it has now got to the point where each of us has files made of our likes and dislikes. Nothing is sacred. What is the harm in this one may ask? Let's see. The rounding up of the Japanese Americans was helped by the Census Bureau. Those parents who filled out those Farrell's birthday cards so their kids could get a free ice cream cone on their birthday found reminders for draft registration in their mailboxes. One bank in Boston would not provide mortgages to certain zip codes that had low income black families. Gay organizations bought lists of gays (Yes, they could figure that out by what you bought, read, and places you frequent.) that were used to out people who were not ready or willing to announce that to family or friends. You bought roses, condoms, and paid for that motel room with a credit card. Hum? You are a single woman who purchased a lot of condoms, so was the incident really rape or concentual? The insurance company for the job you applied for might be interested that you buy a large cup of Mountain Dew every morning but have never bought a toothbrush nor been to the dentist since you were a child. Your car insurance company might be concerned that you habitually speed and buy a can of beer every day on the way home from work. Palestinian protesters can buy lists of Jewish Americans to harass and torment. Though racial stereotyping is frowned upon, it is used by advertising agencies, security agencies, and others.
All this information they collect on your private life is considered proprietary information that is sold Yet you receive not a cent. Erik thinks it is time this was changed.
February 2, 2009
What does it mean that this book seems anachronistically cute now?
"The Naked Consumer" was written in 1992; Nielsen ratings, consumer focus groups, census data and market research companies were the main methods of how Corporate America invaded our privacy. Since its' publication, website cookies alone have added more personal information about ourselves than could possibly be acquired through the previous methods mentioned.
Most retail stores have club cards, social networking websites like Facebook have personalized ads, free sites like imeem.com and goodreads.com offer personalized choices based on prior viewing history...and the list goes on and on.
Having already read Naomi Klein's
No Logo No Space, No Choice, No Jobs and other social marketing books, I was already familiar with most of the information in Larson's book, but it was engaging to read his take on how (as of 1992) Corporate America has invaded individuals' privacy.
It's a little disconcerting to realize how much more invasive Corporate America has become as of 2009. Personally, I'd love to read a revised edition of "The Naked Consumer", with Larson's take on how much has changed since his interviews with Jonathan Robbin, Paco Underhall, and others.
"The Naked Consumer" was written in 1992; Nielsen ratings, consumer focus groups, census data and market research companies were the main methods of how Corporate America invaded our privacy. Since its' publication, website cookies alone have added more personal information about ourselves than could possibly be acquired through the previous methods mentioned.
Most retail stores have club cards, social networking websites like Facebook have personalized ads, free sites like imeem.com and goodreads.com offer personalized choices based on prior viewing history...and the list goes on and on.
Having already read Naomi Klein's
No Logo No Space, No Choice, No Jobs and other social marketing books, I was already familiar with most of the information in Larson's book, but it was engaging to read his take on how (as of 1992) Corporate America has invaded individuals' privacy.
It's a little disconcerting to realize how much more invasive Corporate America has become as of 2009. Personally, I'd love to read a revised edition of "The Naked Consumer", with Larson's take on how much has changed since his interviews with Jonathan Robbin, Paco Underhall, and others.
April 24, 2015
Having just read “Dead Wake,” Erik Larson’s latest blockbuster, and having consumed each of his previous novels, I ran across his very first book, a nonfiction account of how companies spy on the consumer. I was curious as to how Larson would report on my least favorite social activity. He handled it with remarkable aplomb.
Published in 1992, when Larson was a free-lancer living in Baltimore, it’s a book he claims to love, although apparently no one else did. It is not the booming hit his later novels have become, but I liked it and believe that the consumer, even more put upon now by sleazy marketing than when Larson wrote the book, would find it mesmerizing and should read it.
Larson, in his clear and precise reporting, tells us how tax dollars have enabled marketers to find us, zero in on our secret wishes, and persuade us to buy things we don’t need. We are all on lists that help companies locate us, determine what we are patsies for, and how to make us empty our pocketbooks. The US Census, as have many other public agencies, although confidentiality is promised, has given immense amounts of information to companies that exist to sort through, quantify, and assemble data into lists that identify every person in our country by name, address, ethnicity, economic wealth, living condition, household makeup, religion, and any other characteristic that’s usable in determining vulnerability to marketing schemes...and to make a great deal of money doing so.
This book is complex and mindboggling. To me it is also infuriating. I’m not some naïve dolt who thinks I exist in a vacuum, safe and secure in my cocoon of privacy. But Larson has opened my eyes to an irritating conspiracy that, while seemingly harmless, is a pervasive intrusion into privacy. Areas of my personal activity, the value of my home, credit limits on my charge cards, bank account balances, access to my passwords, PIN numbers and, perhaps my preference in underwear are all fair game to these scavengers, information I insist is none of their business.
It never entered my mind that a little innocuous viewing window, the scanner at the checkout stand, could also pass on so much information about me. Combined with the frequent shopper card information I willingly passed out in exchange for gasoline savings, money bonuses, and premiums, it itemizes the commodities I purchase, screens, scores, analyzes the results, and digs deep into my existence. Huge corporations lust for this information.
The information here is dated because of when it was written. I suspect that public infuriation at privacy invasion, manifest in the 1990s, is even greater now. Larson is urging us to recognize that privacy is indeed an unalienable right and that those charged with our protection must do so with dogged resolve.
January 1, 2012
I read this book many years ago. It is about privacy and the collection of information. Since it was published in 1992, before the internet took off, it is hopelessly out of date, but parts of it still ring true. The best part is the author's 'Four Laws of Data Dynamics' governing personal data collected by marketers and advertisers.1. Data must seek and merge with complementary data.2. Data will always be used for purposes other than that for which it was originally intended.3. Data collected about individuals will be used to cause harm to the person about whom the information was collected.4. Confidential information is only confidential until someone decides it is not.
October 1, 2025
Interesting dive into the marketing techniques of the 90s. I wonder what the author thinks now!
October 3, 2011
Ever wonder how you get so much junk mail that seems to be tailored to you specifically? Well, Erik Larson attempts to explain it in this book that might possibly scare you more than Carrot Top. It's funny because he wrote this book almost 2 decades ago, and the amount of information companies know about you has only grown, exponentially. I shudder to think what his book might look like were it written today! I found it an interesting read, but it was dense and a bit tough to get through at times as it's not a novel. I wouldn't recommend to somebody unless they're really interested in this sort of thing.
January 27, 2024
While doubtlessly out of date in the internet age, I still found this book rather interesting for its historical (I know, I know, gen z here) account of micro-marketing and consumer data collection. Of course, I know that google and meta know my innermost thoughts. But I had never paused to consider how marketers went about ascertaining that information in the past. One thing is certain: Larson is an excellent writer. I don't much care about marketing (or economics as a whole, really) but this short book had me spellbound. Glad I read it, even if it's more or less irrelevant these days.
November 7, 2017
I love Erik Larsen and how he writes. I found this 1994 book of his about how personal data is bought and sold, an area I know well from my work. Larsen predicts many of the future habits of the internet, but he also shows us how much has changed. 20 years on this book got me thinking about how our concepts of privacy have changed in the age of the internet.
January 11, 2018
Not my favorite Larson, but it was also more of a deep dive into the inner workings of market researchers and what exactly they use at their disposal. Since I work in the market research field, some of it was actually kind of interesting to see what data is considered influential and how they retrieve this data.
The part of the book that got a little tired on me was the screaming issue of privacy. Like people shouldn't be allowed to know where I work, where I live, or what cereal I buy. I understand that something more sensitive like my overall income or my credit score could be a bit over the top, but most of the things that I had learned that researchers are after are things that anyone could see with casual observation (and they often do) or simply willingness to comply with the research company. What they do with that data is up to them.
Given the fact that this book was written about 25 years ago, it does tend to be a bit dated. But I think that overall trend of tracking spending habits, whereabouts, and overall impression of products is still used in every sense of the imagination today. Some people may not like it or feel some sort of violation because the grocery store camera saw them with two types of coffee in their hands before they settled on one of them. Me, I'm not sure why that sort of thing will matter... but maybe someday they'll be an email that gets sent that changes my mind.
The part of the book that got a little tired on me was the screaming issue of privacy. Like people shouldn't be allowed to know where I work, where I live, or what cereal I buy. I understand that something more sensitive like my overall income or my credit score could be a bit over the top, but most of the things that I had learned that researchers are after are things that anyone could see with casual observation (and they often do) or simply willingness to comply with the research company. What they do with that data is up to them.
Given the fact that this book was written about 25 years ago, it does tend to be a bit dated. But I think that overall trend of tracking spending habits, whereabouts, and overall impression of products is still used in every sense of the imagination today. Some people may not like it or feel some sort of violation because the grocery store camera saw them with two types of coffee in their hands before they settled on one of them. Me, I'm not sure why that sort of thing will matter... but maybe someday they'll be an email that gets sent that changes my mind.
January 28, 2020
Another follow up in my quest to make up for my mistake in thinking "Isaac's Storm" was Erik Larson's first book. This one has held up well in that Goodreads' general rating is 4 Stars and so is my personal one.
The tricks and devil inspired techniques used by the data miners that Larson describes in large measure are forerunners of the more despicable and annoying ones used by today's marketers, both criminal and maybe not so. Certainly the issue of what 'privacy' is and how much we deserve is alive now as it was when Larson was writing the present tome. I note that while computers are discussed and the term 'electronic mail' was used, no mention of the World Wide Web or the Internet intrudes into these pages. Nor is hacking a problem.
If Larson's remedies had been followed back in the early 90s we'd have a better world. So too if the 'Terminator' solution had somehow occurred and his interview subjects were magically erased. The former dream would have involved intelligent Congressional action and we know what a non-started that is: on a par with time travel.
Included is a section titled "Sources, Notes, Minutiae" which has some delightful nuggets. The main text has a share of humor to it, too.
Recommended.
The tricks and devil inspired techniques used by the data miners that Larson describes in large measure are forerunners of the more despicable and annoying ones used by today's marketers, both criminal and maybe not so. Certainly the issue of what 'privacy' is and how much we deserve is alive now as it was when Larson was writing the present tome. I note that while computers are discussed and the term 'electronic mail' was used, no mention of the World Wide Web or the Internet intrudes into these pages. Nor is hacking a problem.
If Larson's remedies had been followed back in the early 90s we'd have a better world. So too if the 'Terminator' solution had somehow occurred and his interview subjects were magically erased. The former dream would have involved intelligent Congressional action and we know what a non-started that is: on a par with time travel.
Included is a section titled "Sources, Notes, Minutiae" which has some delightful nuggets. The main text has a share of humor to it, too.
Recommended.
August 28, 2024
veryy eye-opening. i'm not sure how to describe how i feel after finishing this... i feel like the expectation is to say i'm alarmed? apprehensive? distrustful? cynical, maybe? all of these things were transiently true as i was reading this book, and there's still truth to those feelings by the end, but overall i'm just mesmerized by everything i've learned about how our data is collected/distributed/used/misused by different private and public entities. it's fcked up, sure, but so fascinating. this book shed new light on data harvesting, targeted advertising, subconscious consumer habits, the commodification of literally everything ever, the existence (or lack thereof) of privacy, and the evolution of all of these things as we exist deeper in cyberspace. it's cool bc the subject in general is obviously not novel but the details in this book are all specific novelties...mm everything erik larson writes is so well-researched i seriously love and respect him as an author
February 11, 2021
From todays perspective, Larson’s complaints of intrusion by marketers and general loss of privacy go well beyond quaint. In 1992, when he wrote the book, the internet did not exist in any widespread way. He complains about direct mail companies knowing that his wife was going to give birth shortly, which is, admittedly creepy, but nothing compared to what was coming. He never could have imagined that not only would our privacy be invaded by corporations at every minute, but that we would gladly give it away- and in many cases pay for the privilege of having our privacy invaded, from watches that listen to Alexas and Google Homes that claim they don’t. His calls for regulation may have worked in the direct-mail space, but we have yet to have a reckoning in the digital world.
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February 14, 2021I know the information in this book is dated ~ written almost 30 years ago. I wanted to see the difference between then and now.
"Someday soon even our wristwatches may be pressed into services monitors of our consuming affairs."
...and here we are. Now we have watches that tell us much more than the time. We have Alexa, Siri, Amazon, Google, and more. I think there are people who know more about me than I do.
He gives the history of such issues that date back to the early 20thC. It covers everything from shopping, medical issues, phone calls we don't want, and polls and politics ~ and much more.
"Someday soon even our wristwatches may be pressed into services monitors of our consuming affairs."
...and here we are. Now we have watches that tell us much more than the time. We have Alexa, Siri, Amazon, Google, and more. I think there are people who know more about me than I do.
He gives the history of such issues that date back to the early 20thC. It covers everything from shopping, medical issues, phone calls we don't want, and polls and politics ~ and much more.
June 9, 2024
This book is seriously dated but yet still relevant in so many ways. The writer is one of the new authors I have decided to follow so if you have been following my reports you know I’ll go back to the writers first work and read everything they have written.
All though dated this treatise on personal privacy is well written and researched. Many chapters flowed like a 60 minutes segment. Learned and relearned a lot about direct marketing from this reading and much I did not know. Not for everyone because of the dating but you could learn a lot from this book.
All though dated this treatise on personal privacy is well written and researched. Many chapters flowed like a 60 minutes segment. Learned and relearned a lot about direct marketing from this reading and much I did not know. Not for everyone because of the dating but you could learn a lot from this book.
January 6, 2018
Great starter book on the personal privacy issue - especially on the problems with the current U.S. census programs. However, the book was written almost 30 years ago now and Larson could not have foreseen the advent of social media, the computing power/ camera ability of cell phones, or the meteoric rise of the hacking communities.
December 27, 2021
Very interesting. Well written. Just not as much my thing. But still learned a lot. First book written by Erik Larson, and I want to read everything he has written. Two of his other works so far are amazing - Devil and the White City and Dead Wake. Looking forward to reading more of his stuff.
February 17, 2025
I primarily chose this one because I wanted to see and read some of Larson's early works.
Once I started it, I recognized it would necessarily be a period piece.
But it ended up being both a stark reminder and somewhat frightening for it's prescience and the rapidity of the changes and acceptance to the extreme lack of personal privacy that now exists in American society.
Once I started it, I recognized it would necessarily be a period piece.
But it ended up being both a stark reminder and somewhat frightening for it's prescience and the rapidity of the changes and acceptance to the extreme lack of personal privacy that now exists in American society.
February 6, 2022
Interesting and unnerving. Published in the early 90s, this book demonstrates the erosion of our privacy and the targeted manipulation of our patterns. What do the US Census bureau, grocery stores, IRS, etc do with my data??
December 30, 2019
So relevant today, such a must-read.
February 1, 2021
A privacy warning from 1992
May 13, 2024
A bit dated from a tech standpoint but some good foundational information.
January 22, 2012
Written in 1992, the subtitle says it all... "How Our Private Lives Became Public Commodities." This book is some 20 years old, and yet the insights inside give one great pause about the proliferation of his/her personal information that's on so many computers and in the data banks of so many companies now... knowing it was written that long ago makes it all the scarier! After reading other books by Erik Larson I decided to go back and catch this older one that I missed. Larson researched companies that gather and sell personal information about people. Free enterprise? Invasion of privacy? Think twice before you Tweet, Blog, buy anything on line, write a check or go to the grocery store....
January 7, 2013
Erik Larson's The Naked Consumer captures a moment where marketers learned to combine seemingly innocuous public information into powerful, almost intrusive, insight into our personal lives.
Larson commits on the involuntary nature of much of this information gathering and wonders what we can do about it.
Whether this information marketing is improving your life by tailoring products to you or is manipulation and intrusive is probably dependent on your worldview.
But this is an interesting book that chronicles what information how our personal information sources are used and when the bar for privacy is moved so we don't even notice.
Larson commits on the involuntary nature of much of this information gathering and wonders what we can do about it.
Whether this information marketing is improving your life by tailoring products to you or is manipulation and intrusive is probably dependent on your worldview.
But this is an interesting book that chronicles what information how our personal information sources are used and when the bar for privacy is moved so we don't even notice.
January 15, 2013
Erik Larson's The Naked Consumer captures a moment where marketers learned to combine seemingly innocuous public information into powerful, almost intrusive, insight into our personal lives.
Larson commits on the involuntary nature of much of this information gathering and wonders what we can do about it.
Whether this information marketing is improving your life by tailoring products to you or is manipulation and intrusive is probably dependent on your worldview.
But this is an interesting book that chronicles what information how our personal information sources are used and when the bar for privacy is moved so we don't even notice.
Larson commits on the involuntary nature of much of this information gathering and wonders what we can do about it.
Whether this information marketing is improving your life by tailoring products to you or is manipulation and intrusive is probably dependent on your worldview.
But this is an interesting book that chronicles what information how our personal information sources are used and when the bar for privacy is moved so we don't even notice.
September 20, 2016
Read with high hopes after reading his "The Devil in the White City." Looking for an in depth treatise on privacy. Disappointing in that it has all the problems of books written by journalists - repetitive, simple-minded, anecdotal story-telling in the first person sprinkled with set-up interviews of knowledgeable people. Very unsatisfying. Written in 1992, read in 2006, maybe it was informative when it was written and didn't age well.
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July 31, 2011Someone told me I shouldn't read this one because it might make me more paranoid than I am about my information being out there in the world. It was super interesting though and instead of making me more paranoid it gave me the missing pieces of "how do they do that?" Most info is probably outdated but it will give you the idea.
August 19, 2015
I'm not sure why I didn't give this book five stars. Maybe because it hasn't aged as well as it could have. Like the other Larson books I've read it was well written and engaging. I definitely recommend it for anyone concerned about media influence in our lives, consumption/overconsumption and sustainability, and privacy.
September 17, 2015
I love Erik Larson. He's one of my favorite writers. I would have given this 4 stars if I hadn't read it when it was 20 yrs old, but I was only in 7th grade when this was published and I doubt 7th-grader me would have been interested in this.
And now I will continue with my quest to read all of Larson's books.
And now I will continue with my quest to read all of Larson's books.
August 2, 2013
A somewhat dated but disturbing look at marketing. The amound of knowledge aquired about consumers at the time of the writing, was disturbing. I'm not sure how to describe the amount of information aquired now.
An interesting and thought provoking read.
An interesting and thought provoking read.
May 8, 2013
A thorough look at privacy issues, especially as related to marketing tactics. A good read for anyone interested in privacy. My only regret is that it was written in '94 and doesn't include a discussion of social media and more recent technologies.
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