The Broken Window

scabby wall across from Sachs:
    GUERRILLA’S GUIDE TO THE PRIVACY WAR
    • Never give out your Social Security Number.
    • Never give out your phone number.
    • Hold loyalty card swap parties before you go shopping.
    • Never volunteer for surveys.
    • “Opt out” every chance you can.
    • Don’t fill out product registration cards.
    • Don’t fill out “warranty” cards. You don’t need one for the warranty. They’re information gathering devices!
    • Remember—the Nazis’ most dangerous weapon was information.
    • Stay off the “grid” as much as possible.
    She was digesting this when a scuffed door opened and a short, intense-looking man with pale skin strode up to her, shook her hand and then led her back into his office, which was even messier than the lobby.
    Calvin Geddes, the former employee of SSD, now worked for this privacy rights organization. “I went over to the dark side,” he said, smiling. He’d abandoned the conservative SSD dress code, and was wearing a yellow button-down shirt without a tie, jeans and running shoes.
    The pleasant grin faded quickly, though, as she told him the story of the murders.
    “Yep,” he whispered, his eyes hard and focused now. “I knew something like this would happen. I absolutely knew it.”
    Geddes explained that he had a technical background and had worked with Sterling’s first company, SSD’s predecessor, in Silicon Valley, writing code for them. He moved to New York and lived a nice life as SSD skyrocketed to success.
    But then the experience had soured.
    “We had problems. We didn’t encrypt data back then and were responsible for some serious identity thefts. Several people committed suicide. And a couple of times stalkers signed up as clients—but only to get information from innerCircle. Two of the women they were looking for were attacked, one almost died. Then some parents in custody battles used our data to find their exes and kidnapped the children. It was tough. I felt like the guy who helped invent the atom bomb and then regretted it. I tried to put more controls in place at the company. And that meant that I didn’t believe in the quote ‘SSD vision,’ according to my boss.”
    “Sterling?”
    “Ultimately, yes. But he didn’t actually fire me. Andrew never gets his hands dirty. He delegates the unpleasantries. That way he can appear to be the most wonderful, kindest boss in the world. . . . And as a practical matter there’s less evidence against him if other people do his butchery. . . . Well, when I left I joined Privacy Now.”
    The organization was like EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, he explained. PN challenged threats to individuals’ privacy from the government, businesses and financial institutions, computer providers, telephone companies, and commercial data brokers and miners. The organization lobbied in Washington, sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act to find out about surveillance programs, and sued individual corporations that weren’t complying with privacy and disclosure laws.
    Sachs didn’t tell him about the data trap Rodney Szarnek had put together but explained in general terms how they were looking for SSD customers and employees who might be able to patch together dossiers. “The security seems very tight. But that was what Sterling and his people told us. I wanted an outside opinion.”
    “Happy to help.”
    “Mark Whitcomb told us about the concrete firewalls and keeping the data divided up.”
    “Who’s Whitcomb?”
    “He’s with their Compliance Department.”
    “Never heard of it. It’s new.”
    Sachs explained, “The department is like a consumer advocate within the company. To make sure all government regulations are complied with.”
    Geddes seemed pleased, though he added, “That didn’t come about out of the goodness of Andrew Sterling’s heart. They probably got sued once too often and wanted to make a good show for the public and Congress. Sterling’s never going to give one inch if he doesn’t have to. . . . But about the data pens, that’s true. Sterling treats data like the Holy Grail. And hacking in? Probably impossible. And there is no way anybody could physically break in and steal data.”
    “He told me that very few employees can log on and get dossiers from innerCircle. As far as you know, is that true?”
    “Oh, yeah. A few of them have to have access but nobody else. I never did. And I was there from the