Databank Compilers and Computer Listmakers Say: Congeratulations, You're Outed -by Jim Emerson "These are the days of lasers in the jungle/Lasers in the jungle somewhere./Staccato signals of constant infor- mation/A loose affiliation/Of millionaires/And billion- aires/And baby..." -- Paul Simon, "The Boy in the Bubble" ' Nothing is secret anymore: sensationalized outings are al- most redundant nowadays -- because most gays have prob- ably been outed by a computer already. Computers are outing gays daily, for about a dime apiece, usually, to create databases and mailing lists that can eas- ily be appended with various kinds of personal information.' A wealth of information is generated and made available to virtually anyone willing to pay the going price: $60 to- $100 per thousand names. Computer database information about gays and lesbians carries inherent risks, not the least of which concerns the loss of personal privacy. Only an honor-system and presumed trustworthiness among database and list owners, list brokers, and list man- agement companies prevents the transfer of information about gays into unfriendly hands. The largest known database of gays, called the Community Masterfile, is managed by Straub Media Group, a marketing and database service agency based in:New York. It contains information on approximately one million -gays from multiple sources. The practice of renting lists of gays is hardly limited to people who subscribe to magazines or shop by mail. The names of 100,000 respondents to personals ads from 15 different California publications can be obtained through Name Finders Lists Inc., based in San Francisco. Listing Advocate men Many companies manage gay databases and rent lists on behalf of the database owners. For example, Los Angeles based Fasano & Associates rents information culled from the Liberation Publications database that it manages, which identifies 218,000 subscribers of the Ad- vocate, Advocate Men, and Fresh Men, plus people who've used personals ads. Fasano also handles list rentals for International Male, Underwear, and the H.I.M. catalogs. No one who calls an 800 number or 900 dial-it service is immune from snoopers. Anybody who ever uses a credit card to;purchase prod- ucts or services identifiable as gay-related cannot expect to keep their sexual orientation secret. Telephone companies compi1e information every time an 800, 900 or 976 telephone number is called, which iden- tifies the phone that was used to make the call. The caller's phone number becomes the property of whoever receives the call. The telephone numbers of callers can be matched with list and database information from a mind-boggling variety of commercially available public and private records. In so doing, it is possible to create demographic and behavo- rial profiles of individuals and to lump them together with similar people. The technical jargon for this is geo-demo- graphic segmentation. Can you trust your ATM? Other sources of names include ATM card and credit card transactions, tracked through electronic cash regis- ters and by mail order companies. (That's why if you buy a new CD-player you'll soon start receiving offers from music clubs.) The same principle applies if =you buy anything that can be associated with gays: You're likely to be identified on gay mailing lists or computer databases. Another source of gay names are videocassette movie rental transactions. Federal law prohibits compa- nies from releasing the titles of individual videos rented, but there are no rules preventing them from sharing re- sults of broad subject surveys -- such as who rents "gay." Another rentable source of names come from advance ticket sales for events such as gay rodeos and women's mu- sic festivals. Lists of ticket buyers for events with pre- dominately gay audiences are availible through such companies as Bass-Ticketmaster, list mangers and list brokers. The Advocate magazine recently provided the names of people who attended its 25th ' anniversary party to Braun of California Inc., which publishes the H.I.M. catalog to use as a mailing list. Almost every imaginable method is used to encourage people to provide their names and addresses, ranging from sweepstakes contests to nightclub mailing lists. Many lists compiled this way find their way on to gay databases. The potential for abuse exists and one can only hope that databases and lists of gays are used mainly for legit- imate marketing purposes, just as" such information is routinely used for mainstream marketing research. Unfortunately, there are no foolproof safeguards to pre- vent abuse and unauthorized transfers of information about gays either. Also, any damage done to gays and lesbians by misuse of information would be difficult to identify, because such activities usually involves proprietary databases. So there's a good chance it will remain undetected. Some misdeeds involving gays and insurance companies are occurring, though. One example involves the practice of redlining gays and gay neighborhoods by the insur- ance industry, which was reported earlier this year by State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. Although redlining is hardly a new practice, it does seem more palatable when it's described as "targeted marketing," which is usually how such matters-are handled by companies. Segmenting and targeting markets to sell products or services isn't illegal, unlike redlining, which is. No hairdressers or florists The Bay Area Reporter has learned that a New York-: based insurance company began compiling the names of florists and hairdressers at the - onset of the AIDS epidemic -- to screen out applications from suspected gays! A closet- ed computer programmer forced into the project said many high level executives really believe that, most gays are employed in those two professions. The same insurance company simultaneously institut- ed a phony non-discrimination policy towards gays, to protect itself legally. If the company were to be caught redlining against gays, its lawyers could say such prac- tices were never authorized, and wave copies of its "offi- cial" policy to counter any negative publicity. Or the "er- ror" might be blamed on the computer that was used to compile the names. Meanwhile, that computer will probably continue to churn out its staccato signals of con- stant information. Possibly about you.