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Profiling Machines–Mapping the Personal Information Economy
Greg Elmer
2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Bembo and Meta by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong, and was printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Elmer, Greg, 1967–
Profiling machines : mapping the personal information economy / Greg Elmer.p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-05073-0 (hc. :alk. paper)1. Consumer profiling. 2. Privacy, Right of. I. Title: Personal information economy. II. Title.
HF5415.32.E488 2004 658.8034—dc21 2003056148
For all her love, courage, and strength, this book is dedicated to Paula Gardner.
Acknowlegments
Portions of this book were presented at a number of academic conferences and colloquia, which provided wonderful opportunities to refine the arguments presented here. Many of the theoretical arguments discussed in chapter 2 were first presented at Eighty-fourth Annual Convention of the National Communication Association in New York City (November 21–24, 1998) and at the First Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers in Lawrence, Kansas (September 14–17, 2000). Portions of chapter 6 were presented at the Third Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers in Maastricht, The Netherlands (October 13–16, 2002), and at the University of Vienna.
Chapter 2 first appeared in the journal New Media and Society. Earlier versions of chapters 3 and 4 appeared, respectively, in Convergence: A Journal of Research into New Media Technologies and in Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. Chapter 5 is a much revised version of a paper first published by Space and Culture. And portions of chapter 6 were initially published in my edited volume Critical Perspectives on the Internet (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
As a project that has spanned a number of years, this book would not have been published without the help of family and many colleagues, students, mentors, and friends. For an infinite number of reasons, I’m first and foremost indebted to my doctoral advisor, Briankle Chang. My doctoral committee members—Henry Geddes, Justin Lewis, and Robert Schwartzwald—also deserve my gratitude.
A number of colleagues have read or reviewed this manuscript or otherwise provided me with guidance. I am particularly indebted to Mark Andrejevic, Elfriede Fursich, Steve Jones, Richard Rogers, and Rob Shields for their engaging exchanges and close readings of various chapters. Many others have directly or indirectly influenced my thinking on issues of surveillance, new information and communication technologies, computer profiling, and contemporary cultural theory. I’d like to thank Bram Abramson, Jody Berland, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Katya Haskins, David Lyon, Toby Miller, Brian M. Murphy, Greg Seigworth, Jennifer Slack, Jonathan Sterne, Fred Turner, and Greg Wise and for their unique contributions.
The anonymous reviewers from the MIT Press were of immense help in offering suggestions for improvements, many of which have been incorporated into the book. A debt of gratitude also goes to my editor, Doug Sery, who was supportive and encouraging from the earliest stages of this project.
For logistical and institutional support, I’d like to thank my research assistants, Timothy Moriarty and Ryan Ellis; Florida State University communication department chair Stephen McDowell; and dean John Mayo.
This book would, of course, never have seen the light of day without the encouragement and love of my family, Paula, Keegan, and Lilianna, and my parents, Chris and Carol Elmer.
