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 company’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. Caesars’ dogged data-gathering methods have been so successful that they have grown to become the world’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. Tanner’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.
How the hidden trade in our sensitive medical information became a multibillion-dollar business, but has done little to improve our health-care outcomes Hidden to consumers, patient medical data has become a multibillion-dollar worldwide trade industry between our health-care providers, drug companies, and a complex web of middlemen. This great medical-data bazaar sells copies of the prescription you recently filled, your hospital records, insurance claims, blood-test results, and more, stripped of your name but possibly with identifiers such as year of birth, gender, and doctor. As computing grows ever more sophisticated, patient dossiers become increasingly vulnerable to reidentification and the possibility of being targeted by identity thieves or hackers. Paradoxically, comprehensive electronic files for patient treatment—the reason medical data exists in the first place—remain an elusive goal. Even today, patients or their doctors rarely have easy access to comprehensive records that could improve care. In the evolution of medical data, the instinct for profit has outstripped patient needs. This book tells the human, behind-the-scenes story of how such a system evolved internationally. It begins with New York advertising man Ludwig Wolfgang Frohlich, who founded IMS Health, the world’s dominant health-data miner, in the 1950s. IMS Health now gathers patient medical data from more than 45 billion transactions annually from 780,000 data feeds in more than 100 countries. Our Bodies, Our Data uncovers some of Frohlich’s hidden past and follows the story of what happened in the following decades. This is both a story about medicine and medical practice, and about big business and maximizing profits, and the places these meet, places most patients would like to believe are off-limits. Our Bodies, Our Data seeks to spark debate on how we can best balance the promise big data offers to advance medicine and improve lives while preserving the rights and interests of every patient. We, the public, deserve a say in this discussion. After all, it’s our data.
The war for Avantia has reached its terrifying conclusion! Tanner, Gwen, Castor, and Rufus have collected three pieces of the ancient mask that bestows the power to control all of Avantia's Beasts to the wearer. Only one final portion remains and it is being held in Derthsin's fiery volcanic lair.As the group travels toward the furious showdown, Tanner is plagued by the desire to put on the powerful Mask of Anoret. His struggle is amplified by the constant arguing between his friends. Only a united front of these four warriors and their powerful Beasts will be strong enough to defeat Derthsin and his army. The fate of all of Avantia is at stake and Tanner is determined to see that all of their sacrifice has not been in vain. But an unsettling premonition has been following Tanner's progress and the losses may have just begun.
Deadly Beasts. Brutal combat. Welcome to Avantia. At the age of seven, Tanner's father was killed in front of him by the evil warlord Derthsin. But his father's death was not in vain and Derthsin was carried away to his doom by a good Beast, Firepos the Flame Bird. Now, eight years later, another evil army is wreaking havoc across Avantia. But Tanner has been training with Firepos, waiting to avenge his father's death. There is something familiar about this new menace, who rides with a Beast of his own. The evil army is after the pieces of the Mask of Death--which allows whoever wears it to control all Beasts. Tanner sets off on a journey to stop them. Along the way, he encouters twins Gwen and Geffen, who hold the map to finding the remaining pieces.
Deadly Beasts. Brutal combat. Welcome to Avantia. Avantia burns in the fires of war. Derthsin's evil armies swarm the land, and Tanner and the Chosen Riders are all that stand in their way.Will they encounter more Beasts on their treacherous journey to the Southern Caves? And will the dark forces that seek control of Tanner prevent the Riders from fulfilling their destiny?
Look to the Sky is a collection of original short stories authored by the Lehigh University Eckardt Scholars Class of 2015. The stories originally were culmination of the Scholars' freshman seminar, in which we studied sociology through the lens of science fiction. The short stories share two unifying traits: they explore sociological themes (that were the focus of the class) through the genre of science fiction. Outside of that core similarity, the themes and science fiction concepts present are as diverse as the authors themselves. Look to the Sky contains fifteen original short stories, all first written as a part of the Eckardt Freshman Seminar. The book was published in its entirety as an endeavor of six student co-editors and the wonderful staff of CreateSpace. The authors (and editors) would like to thank the Eckardt Scholars Program for giving us the opportunity to publish our works, and CreateSpace for being helpful through every phase of the process.
When Tanner was seven, his father was killed by the evil warlord Derthsin. But Derthsin was carried away to his doom by a good Beast, Firepos the Flame Bird. Now, eight years later, another evil army is wreaking havoc across Avantia. But Tanner has been training with Firepos, waiting to avenge his father's death.
Frommer's $-A-Day guides show travelers how to take a trip without spending a fortune. Eastern Europe is changing dramatically, and Frommer's offers up-to-the-minute advice on planning a low-cost trip to these newly accessible countries. Includes budget hotel and restaurant listings with exact prices, itineraries, sightseeing information, useful maps, and more.
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