We have a document detailing our competitors. So I guess I have to ask...

Am I normal?

If your document details personal information about your competitors employees and their personal contact details then I think the situation might be comparable.

And very much not normal.

From what I recall (the article is register-walled now), the document had twitter handles and public statements. Did the article specify they gathered nonpublic information?

You think having a document detailing competitors is the same thing as compiling personal information of people who have publicly commented against what you're doing?

The sandbagging on this story is crazy.

Competitive intelligence and customer info is one thing. Do you block your business competitors associates and family from accessing public venues?

Dolan does.

Do those documents detail personal information, like face identification, family, etc.?

Its usually about the company, not the individual

if you attach some kind of socially hostile mandate to that list, and accumulated resources to actuate that mandate.

its one level of unhealthy to point at a demographic and say, "them they the source of the problems" , thats like archie bunker.

going further, individual names and dox, curated summarized to a quick read list, gathering weapons building a cell, thats historically malignant.

when i'm doing large presentations to prospective clients my company gives me what they call a "look book". This is a deck with information about every person in the audience all the way down to personality traits, triggering words/phrases, and negotiating style. I think it's pretty normal.

That's a personal information database and making one without consent of the people detailed is _super_ illegal in Europe.

There's a few examples of entities like Jehovah's witnesses making do-not-visit lists that have been considered as a personal information database and such have been in hot water many, many times about that. Yes, even though you might do them to help you personally, you're acting as an agent of the org you're associated with, and such you're not supposed to be doing that.

> when i'm doing large presentations to prospective clients my company gives me what they call a "look book". This is a deck with information about every person in the audience all the way down to personality traits, triggering words/phrases, and negotiating style. I think it's pretty normal.

this is antisocial manipulative behavior normalized under the auspices of "good business".

> I think it's pretty normal.

It has been normalized to you.

It is not normal.

If you ever showed up at my business with something like that, we would never meet again, and I would tell all of my peers, other businesses, etc.

What you're doing is called PsyOps and it's a military function.

Are the potential clients aware that you have this? Are you willing to say who you are or who your company is or would that be embarrassing? I would absolutely not be your client.

Some of you run in dark circles, and this is coming from a guy who got paid to kill people.