Acknowledgments

First, I must thank my editor at O'Reilly, Robert Luhn, who pummeled me with information about the latest privacy breaches several times a day for nearly a year. Robert displayed a deft editorial hand and infinite patience as this manuscript grew increasingly late. I owe him a debt of gratitude. My thanks go as well to Derek Di Matteo for his fastidious (but not fussy) copyedit.

No reporter can do his job without the help of many others. I relied on many privacy wonks for the information in this book, many of whom are quoted in the following pages. The list includes Parry Aftab, Steven Aftergood, Katherine Albrecht, Kim Alexander, Jim Aspinwall, Lisa Bennett, Naftali Bennett, Bill Brown, Stephen Buckner, Dr. Nancy Canning, Jason Catlett, Christina Clearwater, Ray Everett Church, Frederick W. Daily, Will Doherty, Fred Felman, Angela Fulcher, Tena Friery, Robert Gellman, Steve Gibson, Beth Givens, Michelle Greenberg, Chris Griffin, Rod Griffin, Jim Harper, Bill Harris, Don Harris, Edward Hasbrouck, Chris Hoofnagle, Alfred Huger, Lisa Hurst, Dan Kahn, Rachel Keener, Ken Klingenstein, Jim Kuhn, Frederick S. Lane, Kraig Lane, Dan Larkin, Denise Lieberman, Felix Lin, Steve Linford, Erin Long, Lewis Maltby, Jennifer Martin, David McGuinn, Barmack Nassirian, Larry Noble, Michael Ostrolenk, John Pescatore, Ed Petersen, James Plummer, Larry Ponemon, James C. Pyles, Mark Roberti, April Robertson, Mark Rowe, Marcus Sachs, Mark Sunner, Bill Scannell, Dr. Phyllis Schneck, Bruce Schneier, Scott Silverman, Brooke Singer, Richard Smith, Robert Ellis Smith, Te Smith, Lisa Sotto, Shelby Stanfield, Kirk Steers, Chris Stimmel, Razvan Stoica, Deborah Stone, Peter Swire, Linus Upson, Sam Walker, John Walls, Peter Wayner, Lauren Weinstein, Pete Wellborn, Tom Werner, Susan Wilson, Don Wright, Amit Yoran, and David Zumwalt. (My apologies if I left anybody out.)

A special nod of the cap goes to O'Reilly authors Steve Bass (PC Annoyances), Preston Galla (Internet Annoyances), and Scott Granneman (Don't Click on the Blue E!) for their help in reading parts of this manuscript and/or answering my many pesky questions.

There are a handful of reporters who cover the privacy beat with great acumen. They were an enormous help to me, even if they weren't aware of it. Of particular note are CNET's Declan McCullough, PC World's Andy Brandt and Tom Spring, and Wired News' Ryan Singel and Kim Zetter.

During my research I also leaned rather heavily on several Web sites, among them those for the American Civil Liberties Union (http://www.aclu.org), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (http://www.epic.org), and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (http://www.privacyrights.org). A more complete list of essential web sites appears in Chapter 5.

Finally, I must acknowledge my adoring wife and children, whom I embarrassed on more than one occasion by refusing to provide information to and/or interrogating store personnel while my family was just trying to shop. Thanks for your patience and support.